WORKING PAPER 85

I nt er nat i onal
Water Management
I n s t i t u t e
ISBN: 92-9090-580-8
Drought Series. Paper 3
SM
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I nt er nat i onal
Water Management
I n s t i t u t e
Drought Mitigation
in Pakistan:
Current Status and
Options for Future
Strategies
Shahid Ahmad, Zahid Hussain, Asaf Sarwar Qureshi,
Rashida Majeed and Mohammad Saleem
i
Working Paper 85
Drought Mitigation in Pakistan:
Current Status and Options for Future Strategies
Shahid Ahmad, Zahid Hussain, Asaf Sarwar Qureshi, Rashida Majeed and
Mohammad Saleem
International Water Management Institute
ii
The authors: Shahid Ahmad is the Senior Director in Water Resources Directorate of Pakistan
Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Islamabad. Zahid Hussain is the Director of Water
Resources Research Institute of PARC, Islamabad. Asaf Sarwar Qureshi is Assistant Professor at
the Department of Irrigation and Drainage of the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. Rashida
Majeed is a Student in Water Engineering and Management at the Asian Institute of Technology,
Bangkok, Thailand and Mohammad Saleem is a Research Officer at the Water Resources Research
Institute of PARC, Islamabad.
The authors are grateful to many stakeholders in research institutions, government agencies and
NGOs, with whom consultations were held during the course of this study. The support provided
by Messrs. Zakir Hussain, Deputy Director, Water Resources Directorate, PARC and Mr. Fateh
Khan Nizamani, Project Director, Rod-Kohi, Thana Boula Khan, Sindh in conducting the
socioeconomic survey of the drought impacts in Sindh and Baluchistan is duly acknowledged. The
authors would like to thank IWMI for providing the opportunity to conduct this study.
An earlier draft of this paper was edited by Dr. V. Smakhtin and reviewed by Dr. H. Turrel, both
of IWMI, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Shahid Ahmad; Zahid Hussain; Asaf Sarwar Qureshi; Rashida Majeed; Mohammad Saleem. 2004.
Drought mitigation in Pakistan: Current status and options for future strategies. Working Paper
85. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute.
/ drought / water harvesting / water conservation / institutions / policy / agriculture / technology
/ water resources / crop production / livestock / dams / wells / political aspects / health /
groundwater / irrigation / water availability / Pakistan /
ISBN 92-9090-580-8
Copyright 2004, by IWMI. All rights reserved.
Please direct inquiries and comments to: iwmi@cgiar.org
IWMI receives its principal funding from 58 governments, private foundations, and
international and regional organizations known as the Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Support is also given by the Governments
of Ghana, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
iii
Contents
Executive Summary..................................................................................................................... v
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1
Target Areas ............................................................................................................................. 2
Droughts and Their Impacts in Pakistan .................................................................................... 5
Water Harvesting and Conservation.......................................................................................... 13
Current Institutions and Policies for Drought Mitigation ........................................................ 27
Gaps in Drought Mitigation ...................................................................................................... 35
Options for Future Strategy ...................................................................................................... 38
Conclusions and Recommendations .......................................................................................... 42
Literature Cited.......................................................................................................................... 45
v
Executive Summary
Droughts are typical in Pakistan as in most of southwest Asia and continue causing multiple adverse
impacts. This study is a part of the Regional Project on Drought Assessment and Potential for
Mitigation in Southwest Asia, which is being implemented by IWMI in collaboration with regional
partners and which is aimed to review the current status of drought-related issues and measures in
Pakistan. This paper reviews factors affecting, or associated with, droughts, focusing on the target
areas (Baluchistan and Sindh provinces), identifying gaps in the institutional and policy arenas
with recommendations for remedial measures, providing analyses of coping strategies adopted by
stakeholders in mitigating droughts, and documenting lessons gained during previous drought cycles.
Pakistan frequently experiences several droughts. The Punjab province experienced the worst
droughts in 1899, 1920 and 1935. The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) experienced the worst
droughts in 1902 and 1951, while Sindh had its worst droughts in 1871, 1881, 1899, 1931, 1947
and 1999. The most severe droughts at the national scale were perhaps the most recent, which
occurred in 19992000 prolonging up to 2002. The rainfall is erratic and river flows have dropped.
Water in the Tarbela dam reaches the dead level in late February or early March almost every
year. The current live reservoir capacity in the Indus basin has been reduced due to siltation. The
recent drought has also exposed the vulnerability of the Indus basin irrigation system and
environmental issues in deltaic areas.
Agricultural growth suffered a severe setback during 20002001 as a result of drought. While
major crops registered a negative growth of almost 10%, the overall agriculture recorded a negative
growth of 2.6%. The drought persisted throughout 20012002, resulting in water shortage of up
to 51% of normal supplies as against 40% of the previous year. The total flows of water in major
rivers also declined to 109 billion m
3
against an average of 162 billion m
3
. Rainfall has also been
below normal. The canal head withdrawals have also witnessed significant decline. Notwithstanding
severe water shortages, the farmers in Pakistan undertook various measures to minimize their adverse
effects. These include judicious use of water, exploitation of groundwater, purchase of water from
tube wells, improvements in cultural practices, and better overall management. As a result, overall
agriculture registered a positive growth of 1.4% in 20012002 as against a decline of 2.6% during
20002001. Droughts have also affected the performance of nonagriculture sectors. Pakistans
nonagricultural GDP growth remained stable at around 4.3% in 20012002. Therefore, when
adjusted for drought impact, the real GDP is provisionally estimated to grow by 4.7% against 5.2%
in 20002001. The slower growth in real GDP over these 2 years was caused by drought. If there
had been no drought, Pakistans economic growth would have been 5%.
Water harvesting, management and use are common practices for drinking or farming either
directly harvesting the runoff or by storing it in small surface and subsurface reservoirs. The stored
water is used for supplemental irrigation and other consumptive uses. In nonirrigated areas, the
majority of farmers are still practicing traditional water-harvesting systems, sailaba or spate
irrigation and khushkhaba or runoff farming. These harvesting systems were adversely affected by
the introduction of new technological interventions (like deep tube wells) and by recurring droughts.
The descriptive information on traditional and new technological interventions is available, but
there is a complete gap of quantitative knowledge on how the new technologies have affected the
traditional and sustainable interventions like karezes. There is hardly any information available
regarding the impact of new technologies on lowering of the water table and mining of groundwater
in Baluchistan. Similar impacts were observed in the arid zones of the Sindh province, where
indiscriminate use of groundwater using deep tube wells led to drying up of the shallow dug-wells
vi
and intrusion of saline water. There is a unique opportunity in Baluchistan to document the impacts
of deep tube-well technology on the drying of karezes, resulting in shifting the benefits of electricity
tariff subsidy to the resource-rich farmers. Baluchistan provides a unique opportunity to the Region
in the assessment of the impacts of new technologies on the karez system. A comprehensive research
study is needed to address this issue in a scientific manner.
The institutional arrangements are reasonably well defined for the drought-relief activities, but
there is hardly any institutional mechanism for drought preparedness and mitigation to address the
long-term issues. The strategy for technological development in Baluchistan and arid areas of Sindh
should be based on the assessment of the potential resources available for development through
integrating activities of spate irrigation with the objective of spreading of floodwater to increase
the command area and recharging the regional groundwater resources.
The study conclusions and recommendations are:
The existing system of monitoring drought and its impacts on various sectors is weak.
There is a need to develop a policy for access to information related to drought and water
management. Such information databases themselves are limited at present. A similar
situation exists at the regional level. Sharing and exchange of information regarding drought
monitoring and impact assessment are also limited among the countries of the region. India
is ahead in this regard and Pakistan can learn from the Indian experiences. Similarly,
exchange of information and building joint programs between Pakistan and Iran would help
the two countries.
Farmers are not aware of actual crop water requirements, and irrigation-scheduling practices
are still largely based on the amount of water available with the farmer and the situation
of the farm. Farmers tend to overirrigate to cover the unleveled fields. Efforts are needed
to help farmers in efficient conveyance and application of pumped groundwater. The water-
management technologies developed in the Indus basin regarding conveyance and
application of water at the farm are very promising, as Pakistan was ahead of the countries
in the region. Even then such technologies were hardly tested and adapted in the drought-
prone areas.
Pakistan can provide a unique opportunity to share the experiences of the watercourse
improvement program, laser leveling, furrow-bed irrigation, skimming wells and salinity
management. Reciprocally, Pakistan can learn from India and Iran in the area of drip and
sprinkler irrigation systems as both these countries are ahead in this regard. A regional
research and development program for drought and water management seems justified for
exchange of experiences and knowledge and to build future activities.
Farmers should be encouraged and motivated to use indigenous water-harvesting
technologies for sailaba (spate irrigation) and khushkhaba (localized runoff farming) areas.
These systems of water spreading if integrated with recharging the groundwater can
provide cost-effective interventions for mitigating the drought impacts.
vii
Due to the excessive exploitation of groundwater coupled with the successive drought,
water tables in different parts of Sindh and especially in Baluchistan have considerably
declined. Communities should be directly involved in the campaign of recharging the aquifers
and in the conjunctive use and management of surface water and groundwater resources.
Pakistans Indus basin experiences of conjunctive use of water have to be used and adapted
in the drought-prone areas of Baluchistan and Sindh provinces. Such experiences if
translated to the nonirrigated areas can provide an excellent opportunity for the countries
of the region.
Efficient irrigation methods, farm layout, balanced use of fertilizer and pesticides, and
integrated nutrient management remain limited and are the key factors underlying low
productivity in Sindh and Baluchistan. The productivity of agriculture and livelihoods of
communities are dependent on the availability of the right type of tools, which can extract
water from larger depths.
Farmers should be encouraged, motivated and trained in the adoption of efficient water-
use technologies, such as sprinkler and drip irrigation, laser leveling, raised-bed planting,
rainwater harvesting, watercourse lining and water-storage tanks, which have proven
successful in different arid environments of Pakistan. The experiences of India and Iran
are available for other countries of the region.
Presently, there is no comprehensive drought-mitigation infrastructure and strategy at the
federal and provincial levels. Institutional arrangements and their capacities are inadequate
at the federal and provincial levels to effectively launch the early warning systems,
preparedness and contingency plans, and rehabilitation measures, while such arrangements
are nonexistent at the district level. In fact, this is the weakest area in the region as a whole.
This justifies a regional initiative to evaluate the existing institutional setups and
mechanisms for drought mitigation and build an effective structure and mechanisms, which
can be adopted by the countries of the region. A collaborative effort is needed in the region
with the active involvement of IWMI.
For formulation and implementation of the National Drought Policy, there is a need to
establish an apex organization for the planning, coordination and monitoring of the policy
interventions at the federal level. This organization may be entrusted with the responsibility
for providing an enabling framework to the provincial governments, where they are
motivated to establish a similar organizational setup at the provincial levels to provide
linkages and coordination among the line departments and the district governments.
1
Introduction
Droughts are some of the most complex natural disasters, and are difficult to predict and mitigate
due to a number of factors involved, lack of precise information on many drought-related issues,
difficulties in defining a drought (its start, end and magnitude), etc. The spatial and temporal
characterization and assessment of a drought are only meaningful if they are integrated with the
socioeconomic indicators. The lack of integrating socioeconomics with the hydrometeorology of
droughts is one major limitation of the work already done in this area. The other important aspect
is that a drought must be seen from the end of impacts and mitigation measures while developing
drought-characterization-assessment approaches. These impacts will also vary in space and time
due to regional variability.
Droughts are typical in Pakistan as in most of southwest Asia and continue to cause multiple
adverse impacts. To design successful anti-drought measures, the current state of the art in drought
assessment and management in countries of the region must be first critically analyzed and gaps
identified. This study is a part of the Regional Project on Drought Assessment and Potential for
Mitigation in Southwest Asia, being implemented by IWMI in collaboration with partners in the
region. The project is funded by the US Department of State, and has a focus on Afghanistan,
India and Pakistan. The entire project is designed to examine the multiplicity of drought-related
issues in the region and is intended as a survey, to prepare the ground for a large-scale drought
research and action program in the countries of the region. This particular study is aimed to review
the current status of drought-related issues and measures in Pakistan. It is also supplemented by
the socioeconomic survey, conducted jointly by IWMI and Pakistan Agricultural Research Council
(PARC) in the provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan (the results of the survey are presented in a
different report).
The Baluchistan and Sindh provinces are selected as target areas in Pakistan, as a start, but
the study also addresses issues of national importance. This paper reviews factors affecting or
associated with droughts, focusing on the target areas, identifying gaps in the institutional and policy
arenas with recommendations for remedial measures, providing analyses of coping strategies adopted
by various stakeholders in mitigating droughts, and documenting lessons gained during previous
drought cycles.
More specifically, the study focuses on two groups of issues: technological interventions to
combat droughts and institutional arrangements and policies for managing droughts in Pakistan.
The first group includes issues like traditional water-conservation methods in target areas and their
effectiveness during droughts, new technological measures proposed and the extent of their
implementation, prospects for such interventions in target areas for the future in the short and long-
term, etc.
The second group deals with issues like the state of the art of drought-monitoring in Pakistan,
processes of drought declaration and links with relief plans, institutional responsibilities for all of
the above, gaps in institutional and policy aspects in drought management at present, etc.
It is envisaged that the results of the Pakistan study would be of interest to the federal and
provincial governments to further focus their drought-mitigation activities in the country. The results
would also be helpful for the planners and policymakers for identifying the future program of action
related to drought-mitigation and -relief programs.
2
Target Areas
Baluchistan
The geographical area of Baluchistan is around 347,190 km
2
and it is the largest province of Pakistan
constituting about 44% of the countrys geographical area. According to the 1998 Census, the
population of the province is around 6.51 million (GOP 2002). The population is sparsely distributed,
with its density around 19 persons per km
2
. Around 78% of the population lives in the rural areas.
The climate largely ranges from semiarid to hyperarid and temperature regimes vary widely from
cool, temperate to tropical. Cold winters and mild summers characterize the northern highlands.
Most of the precipitation is received in winter ranging from 250 to 350 mm. In the southwestern
desert, the annual rainfall ranges from 50 to 125 mm and summers are hottest, with temperature
occasionally rising above 50 C. Annual evaporation rates are very high, exceeding 3,000 mm.
Agriculture and livestock production are the two dominant sectors contributing to the Baluchistan
economy, accounting for over 50% of the provincial GDP and employing roughly 67% of the labor
force (GOP 2003). The limited precipitation and availability of surface water drastically restricted
the cultivated land to around 2.1 million hectares (Mha) during 20002001, which is around 6%
of the provinces geographical area. About 47% of the cultivated area is irrigated, while the remaining
53% is under sailaba (floodwater) and khushkhaba (rainfall and localized runoff) farming systems
(GOP 2002). Although irrigated crop production plays a dominant role in the agricultural economy
of Baluchistan, sailaba and khushkaba farming systems contribute to the livelihood of a sizeable
majority of the population, regarded as the poorest of the poor. These two farming systems are
dependent on precipitation and runoff and their performance also fluctuates drastically with the
variations in precipitation and runoff. Without runoff, economical harvests are not possible due to
low precipitation.
The wide agro-ecological diversity of Baluchistan permits cultivation of a wide range of field
crops and horticulture. Although the province is a net importer of wheat, traditionally cereal
production (wheat, rice, barley, sorghum and millet) has remained important to its economy, covering
70% of the cropped area and contributing 50% to the gross value of crops (GOP 2002). Besides,
it serves as an important source of fodder for the livestock. The high altitude arid environments
provide an ideal condition for the production of deciduous fruits. Baluchistans share of deciduous
fruits (apples, plums, pears, apricots, peaches and pomegranates) and nondeciduous fruits (dates)
ranges from 35 to 85% of Pakistans production. In the case of grapes, almonds and cumin, the
province has an exclusive monopoly in the country.
Irrigated agriculture is dependent both on surface water and groundwater resources. The Khirthar
and Pat Feeder canals of the Indus basin system and Lasbella canal feed the major area under
irrigated agriculture from the Hub dam. Another important source of surface water is the floodwater
that flows through the streams. Around 30% of the floodwater is harnessed for agriculture through
sailaba diversions, storage dams and minor perennial irrigation schemes. The groundwater resource
is available for irrigated agriculture through karezes, springs and wells. With the availability of
electricity from the national grid, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of tube wells.
Indiscriminate installation of tube wells and pumping of water in excess of recharge have caused
lowering of the water table resulting in the drying of dug-wells and a number of karezes and springs.
3
The mining of groundwater and lowering of the water table are causing serious concern regarding
sustainability of groundwater-irrigated agriculture.
Baluchistans important economic activity is livestock production, which is one of the major
sources of livelihood for around 70% of the rural population. Around 92% of the geographical
area of the province has been categorized as rangelands, which provide grazing to around 20 million
of the small ruminants (sheep and goats). Three livestock production systems are prevalent in the
province: a) a small percentage of the agro-pastoralists is sedentary, they grow crops and maintain
livestock and often have access to fodder and crop residues; b) a large proportion of livestock owners
are transhumant, who commute between winter and summer quarters to adjust to the seasonal feed
requirements; they also grow rain-fed crops; c) about 50% of the livestock owners are nomadic
and constantly move between highlands and plains and sometimes cross international borders; they
are entirely dependent on livestock for their livelihood, which is earned through trading of livestock
and livestock products. Livestock marketing is often through middlemen and is highly exploitative.
Livestock health services are provided by the Livestock Department through veterinary hospitals,
dispensaries and mobile units but in several districts these are grossly inadequate.
Sindh
The geographical area of the Sindh province is around 140, 914 km
2
and the population is over 30
million. Around 13% of the geographical area is under irrigated agriculture by perennial and
nonperennial canals from the Indus basin. Salinity and waterlogging affect about half the irrigated
area. The inefficient irrigation system and slow movement of water in the Indus river, due to the
low gradient towards the sea, encourage percolation and cause waterlogging. In over two-thirds of
the area of canal-irrigated agriculture, the groundwater is brackish.
The Thar region of the Sindh province is a large desert with sub-Saharan conditions and
comprises 20,000 km
2
. Runoff agriculture and livestock production are the primary means of
subsistence in this area. Annual rainfall in a wet year ranges between 200 and 250 mm and occurs
mostly during the monsoonal season. The incident of rainfall and runoff in a wet year permits
growing of millet as the main food crop. Guar is the main cash crop. It also supports growth of a
range of grasses providing feed resource to the livestock throughout the year. It also recharges the
thin fresh groundwater layer and provides opportunities for collection of surface runoff in earthen
ponds. Lack or absence of rainfall during the monsoonal season results in acute shortage of food
and fodder. People search for alternative sources for their livelihood, usually migrating to the
periphery of the canal commands for seeking labor and taking loans from informal institutions for
subsistence. Normally, these loans are available on high interest rates.
The Kohistan area of the province is extending along the west and northwestern border of the
province, which is mountainous and is also dependent on runoff for farming of crops (millet,
sorghum, mungbean and guar) and production of livestock (both large and small ruminants). Rainfall
in these areas is scanty ranging from 100 to 120 mm and is highly erratic. The Kachho area lying
between irrigated plains and the Kohistan belt is also dependent on rainfall in the ctachment areas,
and failure of runoff affects the livelihood of people. However, the farmers have developed ways
to find the shallow groundwater and increase yield even in areas having very little recharge through
the installation of horizontal galleries.
The vast arid lands in both provinces with no source of canal irrigation and low precipitation
offer little scope for perennial-irrigated agriculture. However, these areas are highly suitable for
4
traditional farming systems (sailaba and khushkhaba) and livestock production, particularly small
ruminants, cattle and camel. These animals are well adapted to the harsh environments and utilize
available range resources efficiently.
5
Droughts and Their Impacts in Pakistan
A Country-Wide Perspective
Pakistan frequently experiences several droughts. The Punjab province underwent the worst droughts
in 1899, 1920 and 1935. The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) experienced such droughts
in 1902 and 1951, while Sindh had its worst droughts in 1871, 1881, 1899, 1931, 1947 and 1999.
The most severe droughts at the national scale were perhaps the most recent which occurred in
19992000 prolonging up to 2002 in certain areas. The rainfall is erratic and river flows have
dropped. The water in the Tarbela dam reaches dead level in late February or early March almost
every year. The current live reservoir capacity in the Indus basin has been reduced due to siltation.
The recent drought has also exposed the vulnerability of the Indus basin irrigation system and
environmental issues in deltaic areas.
Agricultural growth suffered a severe setback during 20002001 as a result of the drought.
While major crops (wheat, cotton and rice) registered a negative growth of almost 10%, the overall
agriculture recorded a negative growth of 2.6% during 20002001. The performance of minor crops
(cereals, vegetables, fruits, condiments, oil seeds, fodder and others) was also affected by the
prevalent long dry spell. The drought persisted throughout 20012002, resulting in water shortage
of up to 51% of normal supplies as against 40% of the previous year. The total flows of water in
major rivers also declined to 109 billion m
3
against an average of 162 billion m
3
. Rainfall has also
been below normal. The canal-head withdrawals in kharif 2001 and rabi 20012002 seasons have
also witnessed a significant decline. Notwithstanding severe water shortages, the farmers in Pakistan
have undertaken various measures to minimize their adverse effects. These include the judicious
use of water, exploitation of groundwater, purchase of water from tube wells, improvements in
cultural practices and better overall management. As a result, overall agriculture registered a positive
growth of 1.4% in 20012002 as against a decline of 2.6% during 20002001 (Ahmad et al. 2003).
Drought also affected the performance of nonagricultural sectors. Pakistans nonagricultural
GDP growth remained stable at around 4.3% in 20012002 (table 1). Therefore, when adjusted
for drought impact, the real GDP is provisionally estimated to grow by 4.7% against 5.2% in 2000
2001. The slower growth in real GDP over these 2 years was caused by drought. Had there been
no drought, Pakistans economic growth would have been around 5% (Ahmad et al. 2003).
Table 1. Real GDP growth with and without drought (%).
Sector 19992000 20002001 20012002
Real GDP 3.9 2.5 3.6
Nonagricultural GDP 3.1 4.2 4.3
Real GDP growth adjusted for drought impact 4.0 5.2 4.7
Note: The real GDP growth is calculated by excluding value added in agriculture and electricity and gas distribution.
The Government of Pakistan has implemented a relief program for the drought-affected areas
with the objective of mitigating the effects of drought on the livelihood of rural communities. The
major difficulty faced in the launching of a need-based project is the development or assessment of
criteria, which is in line with the requirement of the affected areas. In 2001 the Planning and
6
Development Division assigned the task to develop drought characterization and classification criteria
to a number of institutions, and for this purpose the same task was assigned to the WRRI-NARC
(WRRI 2001). Two characterization criteria were used by WRRI (2001).
Aridity index is a ratio of 50% probability of rainfall and the crop evapotranspiration. Based
on the aridity index, aridity classes were categorized considering humid, subhumid, semiarid, arid
and hyperarid agro-climates. The GIS software Arc Info was used for database development and
spatial analysis. Based on the aridity, four classes of drought-prone areassevere, high, moderate
and lowwere identified. The drought-prone districts were classified based on the aridity index of
each district (figure 1). Another criterion, percent households having access to piped water supply,
was used to further characterize the drought-prone districts. In terms of both criteria, the Baluchistan
and parts of Sindh provinces were ranked as severely affected.
Figure 1. Drought-prone areas of Pakistan characterized, based on aridity index.
7
Impacts of the Recent Drought in Baluchistan and Sindh Provinces
Droughts in the Sindh and Baluchistan provinces have always been part of life, but they have
increased in recent years. Both provinces suffered from the recent severe drought of 19982002,
which affected the human/livestock population, crops and water resources. The drought resulted
from the continuous lack of rainfall. In most severely affected areas, not a single drop of water
was received during 19982002. In the Baluchistan province as a whole, the winter rains were
reduced by 60 to 73% in some years. The situation is particularly serious in areas where groundwater
is either deep or brackish and no surface-water resource is available. Other factors that increase
the adverse impact of droughts include overexploitation of groundwater in violation of groundwater
regulations, deforestation, depletion of grazing pastures due to lack of management, poor farm water
management and lack of controlled cropping patterns (Ahmad et al. 2003).
In the Thar region of Sindh province, rains were down to only 30% (60 mm) and 12% (24
mm) of normal, during the years 1999 and 2000, respectively. Further, it was received in one storm
and did not contribute to crop production and germination of range grasses. Other drought-affected,
areas of SindhMirpur Khas, Sanghar, Dadu and Thattareceived no rains during the last 5 to
6 years, totally eliminating rain-fed crop production, and livestock sustaining on rangeland
vegetation, the two primary means of subsistence in these areas.
The latest drought in Sindh and Baluchistan is estimated to have affected over 3.3 million people,
including thousands who became refugees and hundreds who died of thirst and starvation. It was
also reported that about 30 million livestock were affected, including over 2 million that died. An
emergency relief plan, involving an amount of about US$28 million, was carried out as part of the
disaster-mitigation effort. Measures were adopted to strengthen logistics support, provide drinking
water and material supplies to the drought-hit areas, medical cover to the affected population and
treatment to endangered cattle. Food and fodder were also distributed (GOP 2001; Ahmad et al.
2003). The government has also taken up short- and long-term measures for continued supply of
water to the drought-prone areas. The short-term measures include projects for groundwater recharge
of Quetta, Pishin, Mastung and Mangochar valleys. Various long-term measures such as construction
of small-scale storage reservoirs are also planned (Ahmad et al. 2003). Some drought impacts in
the two provinces are briefly reviewed below.
Water Resources
In Baluchistan province, overexploitation of the groundwater resource, through tube wells, has
caused an alarming rate of depletion of the water table in the Lora-Pashin, Nari river and Zoab
basins. The extended drought preventing any recharge to the aquifer has further aggravated the
situation in these overdrawn basins. Lowering of the water table has resulted in drying up of
dug-wells, particularly in the uplands and 70% percent of the karezes (traditional water-harvesting
and delivery systems) and natural springs. Karezes and springs, which are still alive, are running
at only 1/2 to 1/3 of their capacities, with a drastic reduction in their command area. Lowering
of the water table has also caused drying up of tube wells in several areas or reducing their
discharge by up to 50%. Tube wells with diesel engines had to be abandoned because of their
inability to pump water beyond a certain depth. Stream flows available for traditional sailaba
cultivation (see next section for details) has either totally dried up or drastically reduced because
there was no rainfall (FAO/WFP 2000a, b).
8
In the Sindh province, failure of rainfall and reduced flow of water in rivers and canals have
affected groundwater recharge resulting in lowering of the water table, which had a positive impact
on the productivity of irrigated agriculture due to waterlogging in the pre-drought situation. The
surface wells in nonirrigated areas have dried and at some places the tube wells have also gone out
of commission. The earthquake that hit areas in Badin and Tharparker districts in 2000 has also
resulted in lowering of the water table from about 50 m to 150 m. Reduced stream flows have
particularly affected the adjacent dug-wells, creating serious problems of availability of drinking
water for human beings, as well as for livestock. Reduced recharge has also increased the salinity
of groundwater. There was an overall shortage of 30 to 40% in the water flows of the Indus basin
canals further multiplying the negative effects of drought. Reduced supply of canal water has resulted
in a substantial reduction in cropped area of major crops and productivity (FAO/WFP 2000b;
2002a).
Crops
In the most severely drought-affected areas of Baluchistan, khushkhaba and sailaba farming (see
next section for details) has totally disappeared. In areas severely or moderately affected by drought,
crop areas have been reduced by 60 to 80% with productivity loss by almost 50%. Millet, sorghum,
mungbean, guar and castor bean have been the traditional kharif crops while barley; rape and
mustard have been the rabi crops. In addition to producing grains for human consumption or sale,
these crops have been the primary source of stalks/crop residues for livestock feeding. A reduction
to the extent of 87% has occurred in cropped area between 19951996 and 20002001. The area
under wheat, barley and sorghum has registered drastic reductions of 84%, 96% and 95%,
respectively (table 2).
Table 2. Areas of selected crops under sailaba and khushkhaba farming in Baluchistan.
Year Total cropped Area under major crops (ha)
area (ha)
Wheat Barley Rape and Sorghum
mustard
19951996 257,110 133,090 21,105 10,723 44,675
19961997 99,593 42,180 14,498 4,820 7,549
19981999 90,759 46,835 8,197 3,908 4,350
19992000 35,934 17,908 1,318 588 4,300
20002001 33,529 23,000 824 1,080 3,623
20012002 32,743 21,306 775 4,489 2,280
Due to the drying up of a large number of karezes and natural springs and reduced discharge
from the tube wells, the cropped area served by wells has also been reduced by 15 to 20% and the
yields have been reduced to the tune of 25 to 30% (FAO/WFP 2000a; 2002a, b).
According to a recent survey by the Department of Agriculture, about 40% apple, peach and
apricot orchards in upland Baluchistan, have dried, cut and sold as fuel during 20002002. Orchards
that have survived are producing 30 to 40% less fruit of low quality because of reduced availability
of water for irrigation. Rain-fed and irrigated fodder production has decreased considerably. This,
9
coupled with a drastic reduction in the productivity of range grasses, has created problems for the
sustenance of livestock even in reduced numbers.
Trends of substitution of low-water deltaic crops like cotton and cumin in place of high-water
deltaic crops like onion in Kharan, Chaghi, Lasbella and Panjgur were observed. The need for
training of both the farmers and the extension staff of the Agriculture Department, in production
management of a new crop like cotton, was evident (FAO/WFP 2000a; 2002b).
Drought also increased the soil salinity in several areas because of reduced leaching of salts
and more evapotranspiration. The increased salinity has had adverse effects on crop yields. Because
of the continuous dry weather there was increased wind erosion of surface soil. Farm operations
jobs have reduced by almost 60% adding to unemployment. There was an increased incidence of
pests and diseases. Drought, coupled with pest infestation, has threatened the date palm economy.
In the province of Sindh, the sailaba farming in drought-affected areas of Dadu, Thatta and
Mirpur Khas districts has been completely eroded due to failure of rains during 5 years. In the
Tharparkar district, moderate monsoonal rains in 2001 enabled planting of rain-fed crops, though
yields were much below normal. The year 2002 went almost dry in Tharparkar with no crop
production. Carryover stalks of sorghum and millet from the summer of 2001 helped in sustaining
the livestock during the first half of 2002 but, later, the flock owners had to migrate to the canal
commands (FAO /WFP 2000b; 2002a).
Reduced water supply in the Indus basin canal system has caused major reductions in area
and production of major crops. The combination of drought and reduced irrigation water supply
had a negative effect on crop production. Reductions in area during 20002001 and 20012002,
in comparison with 19981999, have ranged from 11.1 to 54.3% and those in production from
12.8 to 55.0%. Reductions are particularly high in rice, millet and kharif fodder (table 3). This
drop in crop production in the irrigated areas has reduced their capacity to support the migrant
stockowners from the Thar desert by providing employment and crop residues to feed their livestock.
Reduced aquifer recharge and consequent lowering of the water table have increased salinity
of the groundwater making it hazardous for human and livestock consumption. At places, the salt
Table 3. Area* and production** of major crops in Sindh.
Crop 199899 20002001 20012002
Area Prod Area Prod % change over Area Prod % change over
19981999 19981999
Area Prod Area Prod
Wheat 1124 2675 811 2226 -28 -17 875 2101 -22 -22
Rice 704 1930 540 1682 -23 -13 461 1159 -35 -40
Sugarcane 271 17051 239 12050 -12 -29 241 11416 -11 -33
Cotton 630 2134 524 2141 -17 0 547 2443 -13 15
Sorghum 110 64 87 52 -21 -19 89 57 -19 -11
Millet 175 73 80 41 -54 -44 100 54 -43 -26
Fodder-R 196 3069 109 1382 -45 -55 145 1956 -22 -35
Fodder-K 205 6741 178 5878 -14 -13 153 5372 -25 -20
* Area is 000 ha
** Production of cotton in 000 bales, all others in 000 mt.
10
contents of groundwater were reported to have increased from less than 1,000 ppm to over 2,000
ppm (FAO/WFP 2002a). The data collected by WRRI indicated that, in certain areas, the salinity
of groundwater was as high as 6,000 ppm due to seawater intrusion.
Rangelands of Baluchistan (91% of the total geographical area) have traditionally supported
over 20 million of livestock. Over the years, these rangelands have degraded due to overgrazing
and fuelwood extraction. The influx of a large number of Afghan refugees, along with their livestock
had put added pressure on grazing lands. The persistent 5-year drought has further aggravated the
situation resulting in severe damage to net productivity of rangelands, dropping from 60 kg/ha to
18 kg/ha. Vast areas have been denuded and the carrying capacity of these rangelands has reduced
considerably. The flock owners were forced to sell their stock at prices up to 5 times lower compared
to the pre-drought prices. Mortality due to hunger and disease infestation of malnourished animals
has increased severalfold. Distress sale and mortality together have resulted in an overall reduction
of 35% in stock size, with the individual owners in most severely affected areas losing 80100%
of their animals (FAO/WFP 2002a).
The prevailing livestock production systems offered resilience and choices to shift between
summer and winter quarters. This coping mechanism has shrunk to a large extent due to reduction
in range feed resources because of drought. Kachhi plains and canal-irrigated areas of the
Naseerabad Division were traditionally home to large nomadic/transhumant herds during winter.
However, these areas have very little to offer during drought years.
Dropped leaves, fruits and weeds extracted out of orchards constituted an important source of
supplementing the feed available for grazing. With 40% orchards in upland Baluchistan dried, cut
and sold as fuel, this source of supplementary feed has virtually disappeared in several areas. The
livestock feed resources have further reduced due to stoppage of fodder intercropping in orchards
because of water scarcity. This has happened particularly in Panjgour and Turbat where date and
pomegranate orchards have been traditionally intercropped with berseem and lucerne during winter
(FAO/WFP 2000a; 2002b).
In a fairly large population of small ruminants, two breeding seasons (2001 and 2002) were
completely lost because of reduced conception due to poor feed and health of the mothers. In many
cases, pregnant animals aborted and a 1015% lamb/kid mortality occurred due to shortage of
milk with mothers. The stock buildup capacity has, thus, been drastically reduced and flock
replacements are not becoming available to many graziers (FAO/WFP 2002a; 2002b).
Traditionally, livestock provides ready cash whenever needed to meet the household needs, but
most farmers ready cash has depleted. The situation has become particularly serious for those having
livestock as the sole means of subsistence. Most of the small ruminant herds have been grazed by
hired graziers, which was a source of employment. Reduced stocks have resulted in fewer jobs
adding to unemployment.
The availability of meat, milk and milk products, as part of the family diet, has either totally
disappeared or drastically reduced adding to malnutrition and poor health, particularly in children
and nursing mothers. Due to malnutrition and poor health of animals, both quantitative and
qualitative reduction has occurred in the production of wool and hair. Poor-quality products were
sold at 50% of the normal price. The cottage industry has been adversely affected (FAO/WFP 2000a,
b; 2002b).
Recently, due to reduced availability of stock, the small ruminants were sold at a higher price
in Baluchistan and the mutton prices went up by almost 60%. In Sindh, drought-affected areas in
the five districts have a total livestock population of 5.6 million heads. In normal years, about
11
20% flock owners from these districts shift to canal-irrigated areas taking along 1520% small
ruminants and 80% cattle. On-farm jobs, particularly related to rice and sugarcane harvest, are
available in the irrigated areas to these migrant flock owners. Sugarcane tops and rice straw
constitute a major source of feed for their livestock. If required, fodder is also purchased or traded
against wage labor. Drop in acreage of major crops due to reduced availability of irrigation water
in the canals has reduced the quantity of these feed supplements available for the migrating livestock
and has also shrunk the job market. As the availability of crop residues and range biomass in the
drought-affected areas has continued to deteriorate further, there has been a larger migration of
livestock, increasing pressure on the feed resources available in the irrigated areas (FAO/WFP 2000a;
2002b).
Over 50% of the livestock population in drought-affected areas of Sindh has suffered from
malnutrition with a concomitant increase in disease infestation due to reduced immunity. The
mortality rate of small ruminants has increased by 1015%. Drastic reduction has occurred in their
breeding efficiency with only 4555% ewes/goats breeding during the 2001 and 2002 seasons.
Almost 20 to 25% of the lamb/kid crop succumbed due to low milk availability during the drought
of the last 2 years.
Households
Changes in diet. The normal diet of the people of Baluchistan in the pre-drought period
comprised wheat bread, tea, meat, milk, yogurt, vegetables and fruit. Seasonal vegetables
and fruits were a part of the normal diet of the people living in the rural areas of Sindh and
Baluchistan, while meat and milk products were more prominent in the diet of people
dependent on livestock for their livelihood, especially in Baluchistan. Drought has restricted
the access of affected people to food items. Their present diet comprises wheat flour and
tea in Baluchistan and wheat flour, onion and chili in Sindh.
Earlier, the people had at least two regular meals a day. Most drought-affected people were
forced to subsist on one meal. Wheat flour is the principal item of expenditure of the family income,
followed by cooking oil. As cash resources depleted, it became hard to purchase oil and most meals
were uncooked, as they comprised bread eaten with tea, chili or onion. There was evidence of food
substitution in some areas of Sindh where people have taken rice in place of bread for their evening
meal. Because of the lack of animals people have stopped making laandi, a form of dried meat,
the staple winter diet of the Pashtun tribes of Baluchistan, and also lassi, the buttermilk, a favorite
drink in both provinces. No house had food supplies beyond a day or two. In areas where fodder
was scarce, people were forced to share their bread with their animals.
The governments free food distributions have, from the point of view of those affected, promised
much but delivered little. Many of those affected, particularly in Sindh, who would otherwise have
migrated to the canal commands, stayed at their villages in anticipation of receiving government
wheat. Those who did receive this aid mostly got it only once, as a short-term relief. Without regular
follow-up of distributions, this wheat appears to have made no significant improvement in the overall
picture of food security.
Changes in living patterns. Water is a primary need of those affected by droughts; the search
for its regular supply has caused widespread migration. This has converted a large population of
settled villagers into migrants or refugees. A large number of traditional migrants or nomads have
12
been forced to settle in and around places having regular supply of water. This double load of
settlers has caused undue pressure on host villages, by depleting their water sources. The competition
for local work added to the pressure on the job market, and the relations between the existing
population and refugees often resulted in conflicts.
Since other sources of income have dried up, members of the affected families were forced
to involve in the search for supplementing family income through occasional work. Women who
traditionally stitched and embroidered clothes for family use are now trying to do so for
commercial purposes. However, women are not receiving adequate compensation for this work
because of the absence of markets for their products and reduced demand. Child labor has
increased; older boys are now being sent to towns and larger villages in search of employment.
Farmers are undertaking town jobs of the kind they have no training or aptitude for, and are
being paid less than normal wages.
Since most of the family income is spent on the purchase of food, there is usually no cash
surplus for buying other essentials (clothing, bedding, soap). This, together with the lack of water
for cleaning purposes, has led to very unsanitary and unhygienic conditions prevailing in the houses
and shelters of drought-affected families (FAO/WFP 2002a).
Health impacts. Use of brackish water in arid zones is an underlying cause for the poor
state of human health. The method of water transportation and storage (ponds, tanks and plastic
containers) exposes it to various forms of contamination. This is why the most common health
complaints relate to diarrhea, vomiting and fever among children. This, together with a poor diet,
has caused the widespread malnutrition reported among women and children by FAO/WFP (2002a,
b). Diarrhea and enteric disorders were found in 30% of the children. Women were seen as affected
by malnutrition as children. The impact of malnutrition was particularly severe on pregnant and
nursing women, who have a greater demand for food energy. Because of illness and frailness,
many of them complained of having no breast milk for feeding their babies. Since there was no
adequate alternative to mothers milk in the villages, or any proper weaning foods, the life of the
infants appeared to be at considerable risk (FAO/WFP 2002a, b). Malnutrition also increased
the vulnerability of those who were affected to such catastrophic diseases as tuberculosis and
hepatitis.
Vulnerable groups. Women and children have been affected more by drought. While men
have the option to go to work in towns where they have a wider choice in food and access to
clean drinking waterwhich is reflected in their visibly better state of healththe women remain
tied to the house. Their burden increases when the men are away because they have to take care
of the entire household needs, even those that are normally taken care of by men, such as collecting
firewood and fodder and the sale of animals in emergencies. Women are at the tail end of the
family meal. They eat whatever is left after the men and children have eaten. Women also bear
the burden of anguish when their children do not get enough to eat or when childrens essential
needs remain unmet.
Childrens food needs are also more varied because of their growing age. Devoid as it is of
most essential nutrients, their diet invariably leads to malnutrition and other diseases. Night blindness,
scurvy and anemia are common among children and are caused by the lack of vitamins A, C and
B12 in the body. Further, children do not discriminate between good and bad food when they are
hungry. They often eat stale or contaminated food, which causes the high incidence of gastric and
intestinal disorders (FAO/WFP 2002a, b).
13
Water Harvesting and Conservation
Traditional Methods and Their Extent
Water harvesting is a common practice in arid areas of both Sindh and Baluchistan provinces. Water
harvesting captures rainfall and/or runoff and utilizes it for drinking or farming either directly or
by storing it in small surface and subsurface reservoirs. The stored water can be used for
supplemental irrigation and other consumptive uses. In nonirrigated areas, the majority of farmers
are still practicing traditional water-harvesting systems, which date back even to 3000 BC.
Traditional water-harvesting and -conservation practices common in the provinces of Baluchistan
and Sindh are briefly described below.
Karezes
The karez or qanat is one of the oldest traditional irrigation systems of Baluchistan (as well as
in neighboring Afghanistan), which was devised as a means of tapping groundwater supplies
using gravity flow. It is a gently sloping tunnel that conveys water from below the water table to
the ground surface. It consists of a series of dug-wells and tunnels that collect groundwater and
discharge it to the command area. Each karez delivers water to the fields of shareholders, who
have contributed money and labor for its construction. The modern karezes are typically 1 to 5
km long, but have been as long as 50 km in the past. In areas having very low rainfall, and
having little capacity for storage of surface water, the karez is the primary mechanism for water
harvesting and delivery in Baluchistan. The residents of an area mark the site where the
precipitation drained into an underground formation followed by the appearance of water a few
kilometers downstream of the command area. The man who organizes villagers to begin and
complete the arduous task of building a karez and maintaining it over time holds the office of
Sarishtra, the manager of a karez. The Sarishtra holds the land immediately adjacent to the
daylight point from which the water is discharged.
The residents first dug a well down to the groundwater table. This well is called the mother
well (figure 2). In the expected direction of groundwater flow, more wells at a distance of 50100
meters apart are dug to check the flowing water. Once a karez is established, it can be used for
years. A census in 1998 revealed that there were 493 karezes in Baluchistan (IUCN 2000). An
average karez can irrigate 1020 hectares. Karezes, which yield up to 200 liters/sec normally, serve
a maximum of 200 shareholders.
A karez is a perennial source of water both for domestic and irrigation purposes. In places
without a freshwater supply, karez water is used for drinking, washing of clothes, cleaning of utensils,
etc. A few decades ago, the agricultural economy was totally dependent upon the supply of karez
water. The area irrigated by karezes in Baluchistan decreased from 14.2% in 1980 to 7.5% in 2000
(GOP 2000).
14
Figure 2. A schematic cross-section of a karez system.
Sailaba or Rod-Kohi System
The sailaba or rod-kohi system is widely practiced in the Sindh and Baluchistan provinces. The
sailaba cultivation is done by diversion and spreading of intermittent flows of hill torrents. As the
water comes down the hill, it is checked by a series of earthen diversion bunds. To meet their local
irrigation needs small communities have constructed diversion bunds on a number of smaller streams
for irrigation. The water thus checked is allowed to seep slowly down into the soil. Water rights
have been historically determined. Water can only go through the main, predetermined channel.
The water is allowed to flow out of the side water channels only when there is excess water.
Relatively large fields, each over 3 hectares, may be irrigated in this system and deep-rooted crops
are usually recommended. The hill-torrent areas in Baluchistan are the Kachhi, Zhob-Loralai,
Makran coastal area and the Kharan closed basin, and in Sindh they are the Karachi area, Khirther
range and Sehwan and Pataro areas (Ahmad 2001; 2003a).
The potential for sailaba in Baluchistan is estimated as 1.1 million hectares. The historical
data, however, indicate that sailaba cultivation has decreased from 0.33 million hectares in 1980
to 0.17 million hectares in 2000 (GOP 2000). The floodwater in the sailaba system is collected in
two different ways: troughing the bandat systems and diversion of ephemeral streams.
Bandat systems. In the valley bottom, large bunds are made by farmers to serve as field
demarcation boundaries and to trap runoff water. In this system, 0.5- to 3-m high bunds (earth
embankments), depending on the topography of the land, are constructed on the main seasonal
riverbeds to divert floodwater and lead it to the bunded fields (Khan 1994). The floodwater
originating from the upper Loralai district flows through parts of Loralai, Kohlu and Sibi before
entering the Sindh province. The bunds have been traditionally built by animal labor (camel and
bullocks) but now it is common to see increasing use of bulldozers and tractors. The bunds are
simply banks of earth. Farmers raise their crops on areas where runoff is collected.
Daylight point
Kalmeer
Ground Water Level
Tunnel 3x4
Mother Well
Karez Shaft
KAREZ SYSTEM
Recharge Area
15
Diversion of ephemeral streams. Another common practice in upland Baluchistan is to terrace
stony land alongside ephemeral streams at the top of the valleys, near the mountains, and divert
the stream flow into the fields by dams extending into the streambeds. Stream flow generally occurs
following the intense storms of the monsoonal period, bringing sediments from the surrounding
hills, which provide nutrients for crop production (Rees et al. 1987).
Khushkhaba System
The Khushkhaba system comprises in-situ conservation of incidental rainwater and catching runoff
from large uncultivated blocks and diverting it to cultivated fields. Fields receive water directly
from precipitation or from localized runoff. The khushkhaba is merely a chance cropping with a
successful crop being raised on average once in 5 years. The main difference between the khushkaba
lands and the sailaba lands is that the catchment area of the former is small and is often not bigger
than the field enclosed by the embankment or bund. Embankments are made facing the hills, so
that the natural gradient within the bunded area helps collect the runoff above the embankments
(Khan 1994). The area inside the bund is deliberately left uneven with the areas closer to the bund
being the lowest. This is done so that, in the case of high rainfall, the runoff from adjacent areas
upslope collects near the embankments and provides enough water at least to grow crops in the
lower half of the fields (0.51% slope), and to encourage rainfall to run off into the tilled bunded
field below to increase both its soil-moisture content and, consequently, the yield of the dryland
crop. It is mainly practiced in Quetta-Sarawan and Zhob-Loralai areas of the Baluchistan province.
The area under khushkaba cultivation in Baluchistan was estimated as 0.32 million hectares in
1980 and 0.34 million hectares in 2000 (GOP 1980, 1990, 2000).
Tarai
The most common type of water conservation in the arid regions of Sindh is a dugout commonly
called tarai. Tarais collect rainwater for water supply and are filled from the water drained from
a level watershed and collecting area. They could be dug cheaply in low-lying areas with clay soil
where there is some runoff. The depth of water in a tarai is normally 34 m. The water from tarais,
which is less than 3-m deep, is fast lost through evaporation. The evaporation rate is relative to
the amount of runoff received and its frequency during a year. The evaporation rate in drought-
prone areas is significant, as there are prolonged dry spells with no rainfall or runoff received during
the dry year. Therefore, the tarai depth is normally twice the annual evaporation in the area. They
are dug so deep as to hold water for long periods. A tarai has sloping sides so that livestock can
have access to water. Desilting is needed after 34 years.
Small Dams
Small dams on channels and streams, however, collect and store more water than tarais. Several
such dams have been constructed in hilly and mountainous areas at some places on the streams to
store rainwater. These are typical in the Kohistan area of the Sindh province. The reservoir of water
in small dams can serve both animals and human beings. In the Kohistan region, particularly where
many rainwater streams (nain) flow heavily during and after rainfall for a considerable period,
16
such reservoirs retain water for some time after the end of the rainy season. The soil retains moisture
for longer period to support dryland agriculture.
Wells
In most of the rangelands, the dependable and common source of water is wells, where groundwater
is of usable quality. Water from the well is raised manually or by animal power. The wells are
usually dug along the riverbeds and channels to harvest the shallow seepage water.
A comparison of the area irrigated by different sources during the selected decades in the
Baluchistan and Sindh provinces is presented in table 4.
Table 4. Area irrigated by different sources (GOP 1980, 1990, 2000).
Area (ha) Baluchistan Sindh
1980 1990 2000 1980 1990 2000
Total cultivated area 995,710 1,163,387 1,271,872 3,167,054 2,874,033 3,255,334
By canal only 177,594 206,690 281,859 2,285,259 2,132,546 2,658,510
By canal and tube well 15,689 164,112 134,226 154,912
By canal and others 8,207
By tube well only 40,779 105,629 202,281 51,813 44,080 40,181
By well only 8,488 3,312
By karez only 49,218 54,096 52,750
Tank/bandat/rod-kohi/spring 39,955 8,927
Tank/bandat 38,415 12,399 7,772 7,457
Spring/rod-kohi 127,430 89,437 30,223 44,983
Unspecified 30,213 58,244 47,624 6,753 2,074 529
Not irrigated 55,274 97,779 48,807 64,015
Sailaba 330,370 192,255 172,482 35,200 12,398 3,042
Barani 319,106 380,644 342,074 505,701 461,905 281,706
Effectiveness of Traditional Water Conservation during Drought
Karezes
The efficiency of the traditional karez systems has been negatively affected during the last 20 years
for two reasons. First, due to recurring droughts, and second due to the installation of a large number
of tube wells and dug-wells (more than 25,000 functional tube wells exist throughout Baluchistan
at present). The rate of depletion of groundwater in Baluchistan has been accelerated from
approximately 0.2 meters per year (m/yr.) prior to 1989 to the present rate of 1 to 1.5 m/yr. (Khan
2002). The installation of a large number of tube wells has contributed significantly to lowering
the groundwater table, which has dropped from 15 to 80 m in the last 30 years. The latest drought
has devastated entire ecosystems as water supplies for domestic use, agriculture, water and vegetation
recede or vanish altogether. A key advantage of the karez is that it delivers water year-round, even
in years when rainfall is below average. According to Appell et al. (2003), during the recent drought
in Baluchistan, the karez continued to deliver enough water to meet peoples needs for about 2
17
years. However, due to the continuous drought condition, natural flows in karezes and springs are
also drying up. Community-owned and -maintained karezes were replaced by private wells owned
by a few individuals.
During the last decade, the government departments, National Rural Support Programme
(NRSP) and NGOs working in the area have restored nearly 200 karezes. Till July 2002, NRSP
and its community organizations had rehabilitated 112 karezes in Turbat, benefiting over 13,000
households (Appell et al. 2003). In some areas, including those close to the Dasht river, the karez
is a vital link to water-storage facilities. The government has recently built a number of water-
storage bunds, which are also linked to the karez system.
Sailaba and Khushkhaba Systems
Crops grown under these irrigation systems give poor yield and return and thus the investments
are very risky. However, these farming systems in conjunction with livestock do provide an off-
farm income, which is the major source for many of the poor farming communities. These types of
water-harvesting systems are dependent on the monsoon, which is unreliable in upland Baluchistan.
Due to below-normal rainfall during the past 4 years, many parts could not receive enough rains
to recharge the water sources. The abrupt decline in rainfall (less than 50% of normal) in most of
the uplands has caused complete drying of water sources for domestic needs. The long period of
moisture stress during the drought coupled with shallow rooting results in very low yields. Both
sailaba and khushkhaba are managed in traditional ways. These systems serve only to meet the
barest needs of the farmers. In the most severely drought-affected areas of Baluchistan, cropping
of khushkhaba and sailaba types has totally disappeared. In areas severely or moderately affected
by drought, crop areas have reduced by 60 to 80% with productivity going down by almost 50%
due to moisture stress. Stream flows available for sailaba cultivation have either totally dried up
or drastically reduced because of failure of rainfall (Chaudhri et al. 2002). The area under wheat,
barley and sorghum has registered drastic reductions of 84%, 96% and 95%, respectively.
During the drought and dry spells of the last few years, the floodwater was received in reduced
quantity and, consequently, the command area was severely affected. The farmers either harvested
the wilted crop or could not cultivate due to water scarcity.
Tarais, Small Dams and Wells
In Sindh, very limited efforts have been made to accumulate the rainwater that may be utilized for
cultivation of land. Several projects like mole dam, Kacho reservoir, development of lakes,
depressions and reservoirs are lying unattended and ignored for many years. These water bodies
can substantially harvest the rainwater for using it for valued crops. During the recent drought,
the districts of Tharparkar, Kohistan and Dadu were severely affected and Tarais either dry up
completely or become heavily polluted. The other water sources like ponds have dried up due to
extreme drought and water in the wells has also fallen. With the drying up of sources of water, the
herders had to move 1012 km to water their animals and, during extreme scarcity, they out-migrated
to irrigated areas (Isani 2000). Due to lack of moisture, crops such as millet, guar and grasses
have dried up completely and overgrazing has caused poor vegetative cover, resulting in
desertification.
18
New Water-Harvesting and Conservation Methods
Runoff-Runon Systems for Khushkaba Areas
The dryland-farming system of upland Baluchistan faces many constraints mainly due to low and
erratic rainfall, which varies from 150 to 300 mm annually. The dryland farmers classify 3 to 5
years out of 10 as a poor crop year with low grain and fodder yields. The farmers have, therefore,
developed several water-harvesting practices that minimize production risk. Based on the
observations of the valley-bottom soils, Rees et al. (1987) suggested more modest and practical
interventions. Since crop growth in the upper portions of most fields is usually patchy and poor,
the possibility of treating this unproductive land lies in reducing infiltration of rainwater and
increased runon in the cropping area near the bund. The upper portion was treated either by plowing
to remove vegetation and loosening the soil or by heavy planking to pulverize and level the soil or
by wetting to induce crust formation. This wetting can be artificial, using an outside source of
water or the first rain of the season will cause crust formation after the pulverization treatment of
the soil. Other treatments such as concreting or mixing salt with soil to engender a strongly
impermeable crust are possible but these are much more expensive than the treatments explained
above. This technique has produced a satisfactory crust on both a sandy loam soil and a sandy
clay loam soil. According to Rees et al. (1987), these interventions have resulted in additional soil-
moisture storage in the cropping area near the bunds.
Water Ponds and Storage Tanks
The available water sources in mountains and deserts of Baluchistan have often a small discharge
and the direct application of this low flow results in higher conveyance and application losses. A
standard size water pond is an integral component of a farms infrastructure throughout Baluchistan.
Before the rains, people normally construct small ponds, which are either mud-plastered or cemented,
to store/conserve rainwater for domestic use and, in some cases, for animals. The size of these
ponds varies from place to place. The stored water is available for a period of 4 to 6 months,
depending on the size of ponds, prevailing weather conditions and its use (FAO/WFP 2002a). Water
ponds constructed in these areas conserve water by increasing the volumetric flow through its
intermittent and timely releases. The Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR)
has developed 6 ponds in the Cholistan desert to collect rainwater runoff from 90 hectares of land.
These ponds have been designed to catch maximum rainwater in the shortest possible time to avoid
water losses. The depth of ponds varies from 4 to 6 m with a storage capacity from 2,000 to 5,000
m
3
(Bhutta et al. 2002). Farmers plant timber and forage trees all around the pond to meet their
domestic needs. The advantage of ponds is that farmers keep their ponds filled round the clock,
using them as and when the need arises, and selling this water to neighbors. An additional advantage
is that earthen ponds also recharge the groundwater.
PARC has developed earthen ponds and storage reservoirs in both the target areas, where the
variable depth concept is used so that during the dry spell the water in a reservoir can be restricted
to a smaller area with a larger depth to ensure water availability for longer durations. The sand
filters coupled with hand pumps around these ponds provided a low-cost technology for rural
communities water supply. In addition, in the areas of Barkhan and Musa Khel districts, facilities
19
for washing clothes and water were provided to maintain the quality of the stored water. Rural
communities were motivated to restrict the entry of livestock to the ponded area to avoid associated
water pollution (Ahmad 2001).
In Sindh, a number of storage tanks and new tarais (plus a number of rehabilitated ones) were
built or are under construction. The capacity of tanks depends on the intensity of rainfall but, in
general, the rainwater-harvesting practices are feasible in areas receiving more than 150 mm rainfall
annually.
Artificial Recharge to Groundwater
Due to the continuous overdraft, Baluchistans groundwater aquifers are dropping at 3.5 m annually.
In Sindh, less rainfall and reduced flow of water in rivers and canals have also affected the
groundwater recharge, resulting in the progressive lowering of the water table. Reduced stream
flow has particularly affected the dug-wells along their course, creating a serious drinking water
problem. The most critical issue, therefore, in both provinces is how to stabilize and maintain the
groundwater table. One possible solution is artificial recharge of groundwater. The artificial recharge
techniques include a) plantation of appropriate plant species, b) inverted well, c) recharge dam,
d) loose-stone check dam, e) deep dug-wells, f) ponds and recharge basins, g) depression, h)
benching, and i) spreading of water.
Plantation. The plantation reduces the rate of runoff by trapping and delaying the water with
associated reduction in the level of silt carried in the floodwater. This technique results in significant
impact on water conservation and improvement in Baluchistan, having sufficient soil cover. Studies
reported that an 80 mm storm of rainfall on vegetative catchments could produce a lower peak
flow than that from a 20 mm storm in catchments without plantation. It is also reported that the
vegetative measures can add around 33% more to the groundwater recharge (Majeed 2000).
Recharge dams (delay action dams). This technique consists of constructing dams across
streams to store floodwater for recharging of groundwater. The dams delay the passage of floodwater
by retaining it behind impoundment structures. Recharge then takes place by infiltration behind
the structures through the reservoir bed. A number of such dams have been built in Baluchistan
and Sindh over the last two decades. These are popularly known as delay-action dams.
Unfortunately, many of these do not have any means of releasing water downstream of the dam.
Typically, they have high initial recharge rates due to high porosity of the bed but these rates then
fall exponentially with each rainstorm due to high silt load brought in by the floodwater. A limited
case study on the effectiveness of such dams was conducted on the Pechi delay-action dam near
Ziarat using water balance, isotopic and chemical techniques. The purpose of the dam was to collect
rainwater in the flood season and to supplement the nearby karezes by recharging groundwater.
The study failed to establish any hydraulic interconnection between the dam reservoir and
downstream karezes. The main reason was sedimentation of finer materials in the reservoir bed.
Recently, the PCRWR constructed a leaky dam near Quetta with an aim to overcome the
problems faced in delay-action dams. The main feature of this dam is that, contrary to the existing
practice in Baluchistan, the main body of the dam is leaking. The structure of the dam is gabion
with stones held together with wire mesh. The dam is built so that it allows the slow release of
water through its body for recharging groundwater. The dam body also has the provision for release
of water through a number of gate valves, which could be used once the dam structure gets clogged
20
with sediments. A monitoring system has also been placed to check the effectiveness of the dam
for recharging groundwater.
The results of some studies regarding the effectiveness of delay-action dams indicated that these
structures enjoy considerable popular support in Baluchistan. The Executive Committee of the
National Economic Council (ECNEC) has recently approved the construction of 54 delay-action
dams, estimated at almost US$8 million. These will be built in Quetta, Pishin, Mastung, Qila Abdulla
and Mangochar. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has also offered a grant of
around US$14 million for the construction of five delay-action dams. The Asian Development Bank
(ADB) and the World Bank (WB) have also agreed to finance desiltation of delay-action dams and
construction of new dams under the National Drainage Program of Pakistan. All this is expected
to contribute positively to groundwater recharge. The efficacy of delay-action dams can be enhanced
by providing exit pipes for draining the silt-free water downstream for infiltration into the streambed.
In the Sindh province, the Society for the Conservation and Protection of Environment (SCOPE),
a Pakistani NGO working on the implementation of United Nation Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD) constructed a small retention dam to save land and water resources of
the Gadap area, an agricultural greenbelt in the Malir district of Karachi in the Sindh province
(SCOPE 2002). Malir, which was once known for its abundance of arable land and water resources,
became desertified due to excessive sand and gravel excavation from the beds of hill torrents,
groundwater exploitation and prolonged recurring droughts. The groundwater level dropped from
some 20 m in 1960 to 90200 m in 1999. Owing to the scarcity of water, out of 29,210 hectares,
only 2,600 hectares of land are cultivated. With the construction of a 3.5-m high check dam in the
Khar valley of the Malir district, the rainwater can be stored for domestic purposes and to recharge
the groundwater aquifer. The Raingun Sprinkling Irrigation System was installed to economize the
use of irrigation water at two different farms in the Gadap Union Council. Since the construction
of the weir, runoff has been successfully stored in the lake. This lake is able to store water for
most of the year and the groundwater level in the adjacent area has risen sharply. Many dried wells
and water holes become functional. After every monsoon, rainwater percolation increases and
aquifers are being replenished. The Sindh Arid Zone Development Authority (SAZDA) carried out
studies for the construction of small dams in Kohistan and Thar regions (Rahamoo 2004).
In the Zhob district of Baluchistan, Human Development Foundation (HDF), in partnership
with the local communities, constructed a delay-action dam for recharging groundwater. The dam
has a capacity to store about 110,000 m
3
of water and the catchment area is about 12 km
2
. Before
the dam was built, there was little vegetation around. In 20022003, a few rains filled the dam to
a depth of over 8 m. This has raised the water level in the karezes and wells in the vicinity of the
dam, on average, to about 3 m. HDF also helped the community to install hand pumps in the villages
to provide water for domestic use. Traveling long distances to collect water from earthen ponds,
which is not safe for domestic use, has stopped.
Recharge wells. This technique basically consists of drilling a borehole to provide a direct path
for water to infiltrate and to recharge the groundwater. The water may flow under gravity or may
be injected through reverse pumping. It is reported that good recharge rates can be achieved through
injection wells to an average ranging from 1,235 to 5,725 m
3
/day with a minimum of 200 m
3
/day.
Dug-wells can also be used as a recharging device.
Unfortunately, very often a precipitation of less than 25 mm occurs, which seldom results in
any runoff. Rainfall of more than 25 mm often occurs after a long dry spell and is not effective.
21
Occasional precipitation causing a runoff carries a large amount of sediment, which is harmful to
the success of artificial recharge practices in Baluchistan.
Hand Pumps
In areas where the groundwater table is not very deep, the hand pump is the best solution for domestic
water supplies. In Aranji sub-tehsil of the Khuzdar district, Baluchistan, the water table in several
places during the recent drought was about 12 m. About 3035 hand pumps were installed under
the UN World Food Programme. One hand pump is sufficient for some 50 persons. Furthermore,
the Public Health Engineering and Irrigation & Power Department of Baluchistan has installed
around 28 tube wells and 50 hand pumps to meet the water shortage for irrigation and drinking
purposes in various districts (Khan 2002a, b). The local communities welcomed this technological
intervention.
In the Sindh province, there are 37,391 tube wells installed in the public and private sector. In
view of the overall situation of drought in the province, over the past 34 years, the number of
tube wells has increased by around 60% from 19971998 to 20002001. A new scenario has
emerged whereby the water zone is being exhausted through excessive pumping of groundwater
through tube wells. The Rotary Club of Karachi Sunset Millennium, together with Pakistan Insaf
Welfare Trust (PIWT) has installed 180 hand pumps in the drought-affected areas of urban Sindh.
PIWT has evolved a system through which the community having 300 or more persons is entitled
to have a water pump. The pumps were installed at a public place or at a community center like a
mosque, so that everyone has access to the water.
Improved Tillage and Furrow-Ridge Planting
Although this is not strictly a drought-proofing measure, improved tillage may lead to increased
yields, which is important for creating food reserves. The effect of tillage on crop growth and yield
is not only to increase infiltration of rainwater but also to break the hardpan, which allows better
root growth or increased nitrogen minerlization of the inverted soil.
Farmers in Baluchistan are using a dual-purpose plowing and planting implement, the desi-
plow. This produces ridges 8 to 15 cm high, depending on the soil type and pushes the loose soil
to either side to form a ridge-furrow system. This enables farmers to place seed in moist soil by
planting 4 to 6 cm below the bottom of the furrow. Rees et al. (1987) observed that following 47
mm of rainfall, the soil water content of the basin increased by 24 mm, whereas that of the furrow-
ridged system increased by 57 mm. Both in Sindh and Baluchistan, most of the crops including
wheat can be sown on ridges, which can save about 30% of water.
High-Efficiency Irrigation Technology
In most of Baluchistan, irrigation methods commonly followed by farmers include the controlled
flood-irrigation technique on either wide-border strips or basins. In some areas, where soil is sandy,
gravity irrigation results in significant wastage of water due to seepage. Almost all fruits, vegetables
and winter fodder crops are overirrigated. As much as double the amount of water required is applied.
The application efficiency in fields is 2540% (IUCN 2000).
22
During the early 1990s, PARC, with the collaboration of the local industry, started producing
high-pressure pumps for agricultural purposes, local manufacturing of sprinkler and drip irrigation
systems (polyethylene-based). The local production of sprinkler and drip-irrigation systems helped
the local people to start installing these systems. However, large-scale adoption of these systems in
Baluchistan is limited due to low value of water and heavily subsidized electricity tariff. The subsidy
on electricity consumed by the farmer is around 90%, where the farmer is supposed to pay only
10%, as a fixed rate of Rs4,000 (around US$70) per month. The other root cause for the adoption
of these systems is the nonexistence of local irrigation companies in the provinces.
PARC collaborates with the local companies to initiate local production of PVC-based drip
irrigation systems and to establish local dealership and irrigation companies for the installation of
these systems. The installation of demonstrations throughout Baluchistan and in other parts of
Pakistan is now ongoing. The Government of Baluchistan with the assistance of the Khushhali Bank
is considering the formulation of a Water Conservation Fund, where assistance will be provided to
the farmers through the Khushhali Bank, and systems will be installed by the private sector on a
turnkey basis. The installed cost (capital plus installation cost) for the drip irrigation system by
Engro-Asai supported Company of Civic Abyari is less than Rs50,000 (US$880) per hectare. PARC
in collaboration with the local pump industry has also indigenized Raingun sprinkler irrigation
systems (Hussain and Yasin 2003).
Watercourse Improvement
Considerable wastage of water occurs in watercourses. The main causes of operational losses are
seepage, overflow, vegetation and rodent holes. Currently, the supply of canal water to the Pat
Feeder and Khirther canals in Baluchistan is supplemented by more than 25,000 public and private
tube wells in Baluchistan. Nearly 40% is lost in the delivery system due to improperly designed
and maintained watercourses. Only 60% of water reaches the fields where field unevenness further
accentuates the losses by 2025% (Gill et al. 2002).
In the Sindh province, watercourse losses were in the range of 44%. After lining with PVC
geo-membranes, water losses were reduced to less than 3% (Kazmi 2001). The Government of
Sindh is also negotiating a watercourse-lining project with the WB. The project will be implemented
in 28 villages of 4 districts of the Sindh province covering a total length of 50 km with 1.8 km per
village (Memon 2002). Overall, in Pakistan about 33% of total watercourses have been improved.
Furrow-Bed Irrigation
The basin irrigation method is commonly used in the Sindh and Baluchistan provinces, with the
highest water consumption and the lowest water use efficiency. Furrow-bed irrigation is considered
the most efficient method of water application. Raising row-crops like cotton on beds with row-to-
row spacing of 75 cm is gaining popularity amongst the farmers, mainly because it saves water;
the cost of crop production is also substantially reduced. IWMI has conducted furrow-bed irrigation
trials in cotton-wheat regions of Punjab and Sindh and results have been very encouraging. Planting
of cotton on beds and furrow irrigation have resulted in a 3035% increase in yield with around a
4045% saving in water (IWMI 1999a). The technique is also being evaluated for rice production
and has the potential to grow rice with less water (Gill et al. 2002).
23
Zero-Till Technology
Zero-till drill and production technology was developed by PARC during the late 1980s. PARC
worked with the local manufacturing industry to initiate the local manufacturing of zero-till drills.
Zero-till technology refers to planting crops without seedbed preparation. This technology has been
introduced in the Sindh province. It has been beneficially used for planting wheat without any
seedbed preparation after the harvest of rice. It allows utilization and conservation of the antecedent
soil moisture, saves time due to early planting and increases wheat yield (IWMI 1999b; OFWM
1998). Around 3040% of water can be saved with zero tillage along with precision land leveling.
The area under zero tillage in Pakistan has increased exponentially over the last 4 years with 20
hectares in 199697 to 78,500 hectares in 20012002 (Gill et al. 2002).
Laser-Leveling Technology
Precision land leveling (PLL) improves irrigation application efficiency and increases the uniformity
of application with less chances of overirrigation or under-irrigation. It is becoming increasingly
popular among the farmers because of its benefits in terms of higher water use efficiency and crop
yield. At present, the Directorate of Water Management is providing laser levelers to the farming
community on a monthly rent (Memon 2002). The data collected in Punjab revealed that 80% of
farmers benefiting from this technology have smallholdings (Gill et al. 2002). The main advantages
of PLL are reduction in application losses of up to 25%, reduction in labor requirement by 35%
and increase in crop yield by 20% (Sattar et al. 2001).
Adjusting Cropping Pattern with Water Availability
High-delta crops like sugarcane and rice not only consume a larger portion of available water but
also contribute to waterlogging. Wheat, cotton, rice and sugarcane are the major crops of Sindh,
which constitute 68% of the total cropped area, while the horticultural crops that Sindh produces
are banana (73%) mango (34) and chili (88%). The combined effect of the recent drought and
reduced irrigation water supply reduced the cropped area and crop production of major crops in
Sindh in 20012002. In Baluchistan, due to the drying up of a large number of karezes and natural
springs and reduced discharge from tube wells, the cropped area was reduced and productions were
negatively affected in the same period. The reduction in the production of major crops in Sindh
(compared to 19981999) was in the range of - 4 to -40% and in Baluchistan of -8 to -20% (GOP
2003).
The Government of Sindh decided that low-deltaic crops such as sugar beet, cotton and oilseeds
should replace the high-deltaic crops like sugarcane and rice in accordance with the soil and climatic
conditions. Following this policy, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock initiated a
campaign in the Sindh province to replace sugarcane area by sugarbeet, which resulted in increased
areas under sugar beet in the lower Sindh province during the year 20012002. Sugarbeet grew
well and growers welcomed it as a promising rabi crop.
Rice is the other high-deltaic crop to be replaced with cotton. Cotton not only gives better income
to the farmers but also the gross revenue per unit of irrigation water is much higher for cotton
than for rice (Memon 2002).
24
Existing and Required Institutional Mechanisms for Implementation
Departments of Agriculture (provincial and district) and water user associations (WUAs) are
responsible for implementation of Watercourse Improvement and Construction of Water Storage
Tanks. Under the Local Government Ordinance of 2001, the Department of Agriculture was
decentralized, and among others, water management functions of the OFWM Directorate were also
devolved to the District Governments.
The Department of Agriculture is the lead implementing agency and the provincial Directorate
of OFWM has the overall responsibility for social mobilization to establish WUAs to implement
watercourse improvement and construction of water-storage tanks. The Director of OFWM acts
as the Project Director for the national and provincial programs and is responsible for implementation
of projects through the District and Field Teams.
Laser leveling has been introduced in both the provinces under the OFWM projects. For large-
scale introduction of this intervention, the federal and provincial governments are in the process of
shifting this responsibility to the private sector and the farmers institutions including the WUAs.
The OFWM training institutions would be responsible for the training of the tractor operators and
the engineering staff. The import duty and taxes on laser-leveling equipment have been removed
under the recent package announced by the President of Pakistan for the farmers. As the laser-
leveling units are now being produced locally, it is expected that repair and maintenance facilities
would be available to the users shortly. Similarly, zero-till and the OFWM and Agricultural Extension
staff in both the provinces are introducing furrow-bed systems.
In the Baluchistan province, the Irrigation and Power Department (IPD) is the main public-
sector agency responsible for the planning and operation of irrigation schemes. The Public Health
Engineering department, in collaboration with the local bodies and the Rural Development
Department is responsible for providing drinking water to the rural communities. The Baluchistan
Water and Sanitation Authority is responsible for the provision of water supply to the Quetta city.
The IPD is responsible for developing major groundwater-development projects and installation of
tube wells for the public-sector agencies and for private individuals. The PCRWR is involved in
research related to the leaky delay-action dams in Baluchistan. The hand pumps are primarily
installed by the local NGOs with the help of the Public Health Engineering and IPD.
In general, in the Sindh province, there is currently no established mechanism to promote and
introduce the new technologies and to document their efficiency in mitigating drought impacts. Thus
there is a need to have effective institutional mechanisms for the transfer of technology to the water
users. Appropriate institutional arrangements are also needed for effective coordination between
the line departments and the research and development (R&D) institutions in the province. Such
arrangements are crucial to providing technical backstop and developing support to the rural and
urban communities of the drought-prone districts. This could be accomplished by the establishment
of an apex organization addressing the issues of drought and water management in the arid zones
of the Sindh province.
A drought management plan is essential for the drought-prone districts of the Sindh province
covering the Kohistan, Khirther range and the arid zones. The plan should include a clear coping
mechanism to mitigate the impacts of droughts. Both Baluchistan and Sindh have limited water
resources. But both still do not make efficient use of the available water resources. The existing
irrigation-scheduling practices are still largely based on the conventional approaches of flood
irrigation and have a tendency to overirrigate. To address this issue, an effective extension service
25
is needed for the transfer of management practices and water-use-production technology to the
farmers.
Farmers should be motivated and trained in the use of emerging efficient water-use methods
such as sprinkler and drip irrigation, laser leveling, raised-bed planting, watercourse lining and
water storage tanks, which have proven successful in different arid environments of Pakistan.
Due to the excessive exploitation of groundwater coupled with the successive and recurring
droughts, groundwater tables in different parts of Sindh and Baluchistan have considerably declined.
Traditional water-harvesting and irrigation systems often fail. This overexploitation of the resource
has caused devastating impacts on drinking-water supplies for the urban and rural populations. To
arrest this trend, the government needs to develop appropriate policies to effectively manage and
monitor groundwater development and use. Steps should be taken for the revision and enforcement
of water laws. Communities should be directly involved in the campaign of recharging the
groundwater aquifers and in the conjunctive use and management of surface water and groundwater
resources.
Prospects for New Technologies
Some of the interventions described have proved to be very effective and widely accepted by the
farmers, planners and policymakers at the national level. The government is well aware of the huge
water losses in canals and the need for On-Farm Water Management (OFWM) programs and is
already developing a program for improvement and lining of 86,000 watercourses of the country
to save water in the long-term (GOP 2004). Farmers have to share 55% of the cost of improving
watercourses.
Under the OFWM-project funded by the WB, about 200 water-storage tanks, each with a
capacity of storing 180 m
3
and serving from 5 to 10 farms, would be constructed during the next
4 years on a cost-sharing basis. Using the Government Federal Grant, the Government of Sindh
has undertaken development schemes (duration of 12 to 36 months), which include installation of
tube wells, construction of delay-action dams, small dams, recharge dams, drinking-water supply
through pipelines, introduction of drip irrigation systems in Thar and Kohistan regions and
community-based cactus plantations in arid zone of Sindh (GOS 2000).
The Government of Baluchistan decided to allocate a similar-sized Federal Government grant
of around US$16 million to projects identified as medium- to long-term drought-mitigation strategies.
These include the construction of 11 dams, 250 windmills, development of 28 tube wells, 50 low-
cost water supply schemes and uplift of 100 karezes (FAO/WFP 2000a, b). In Baluchistan,
rehabilitating the karez is a significant means of restoring water supply to communities. National
NGOs, such as NRSP with funding from UNDP and the Federal Government have rehabilitated
112 karezes in Turbat. The introduction of high-efficiency irrigation systems has potential to improve
water distribution and efficiency within the karez system.
In Pakistan overall, currently about 0.7 million hectares of land are being irrigated the through
the rod-kohli system, where water is diverted from the hill torrents. There is a potential to irrigate
2 million hectares of agricultural land and this would need an investment of about US$85 million
(GOP 2004).
Under the 10-year Perspective Development Plan (20012011), pilot projects for the sprinkler/
drip systems over 4,000 hectares will be undertaken in the country (GOP 2001). In Baluchistan,
where indiscriminate expansion of authorized and unauthorized tube wells and the overirrigation
26
of orchards and vegetables have led to mining of groundwater aquifers, such systems are most
appropriate and have a great potential. The drip-irrigation research concluded that it saves
groundwater and significantly increases the yields of orchards.
Under the 10-year Perspective Development Plan (20012011) of the water sector, precision
land leveling of about 150,000 hectares will be undertaken in the country (GOP 2001; GOP 2004).
Due to lack of suitable arrangements for providing equitable access to farmers, so far only a limited
number of demonstrations were possible, and these have been generally targeted for relatively large
farms. The Government of Sindh is planning to consider a PLL program in each district by making
the equipment available to the farming community on a cost-sharing basis. The prospects for the
adoption of this technology are very high in future.
The land, water and climate play an important role in the adaptation of a cropping pattern but
traditions affect the decision making. Many crops are still grown in places where other crops are
more appropriate. Change of cropping pattern can have a significant effect on water savings. In
the Sindh province, the production of sugar is much higher than the requirements of the province.
Ahmad (2003b) proposed (in combination with improvement of watercourses and lining of canals)
a 10-year strategy to reduce the rice and sugarcane cultivation by 20% and increase yield by 20%
to meet the shortfall due to reduction in area. It is essential for Pakistan to introduce new crop
zoning and cropping patterns to efficiently utilize the scarce water.
27
Current Institutions and Policies for Drought Mitigation
Drought Monitoring
Monitoring of drought-related hydrometeorological and other variables in Pakistan is carried out
by several agencies, including the Pakistan Meteorological Department, Water and Power
Development Authority, Provincial Irrigation and Drainage Authorities and District Governments.
Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD)
PMD is a federal agency under the Ministry of Defense, with a mandate to monitor and analyze
meteorological parameters including drought events. It maintains a network of about 200
meteorological stations across the country. A Drought and Environmental Monitoring Centre
(DEMC) has been established within the organizational setup of the PMD. This center has planned
to install 350 additional meteorological stations, particularly to strengthen the existing drought-
monitoring system in the country. The DEMC has also established the Regional Meteorological
Centres in each of the four provinces to provide support for monitoring of drought at the provincial
level. The Regional Meteorological Centers collect the real-time data of meteorological parameters
and communicate these to the PMD headquarters for analysis (PMD 1999, 2000, 2003). Regional
Meteorological Centres are located in Quetta (Baluchistan), Karachi (Sindh), Lahore (Punjab) and
Peshawar (NWFP).
At PMD headquarters, data and information received from the Regional Meteorological Centres
and shared with WMO are processed and synthesized using established methodologies and criteria
related to drought indices to generate information related to drought hazards. If the numerical values
computed using the drought indices indicate that a certain area has been engulfed in drought conditions,
then PMD asks the respective meteorological station(s) to supplement the climatic findings with the
physical surveys and ground-truth analysis in the drought-affected areas. If the ground-truth surveys
also support the empirical findings, then PMD communicates the drought-alert signals the Home
Secretary of the respective provinces and the Emergency Relief Cell within the Cabinet Division of
the Government of Pakistan to take necessary measures in the affected areas.
PMD explores drought characteristics like intensity, magnitude and extent (spatial and temporal).
For the assessment and characterization of drought events and drought-affected areas, PMD has
been using Percent Normal Method, Aridity Index and Standardized Precipitation Index as drought
indicators (PMD 1999, 2000, 2003).
Percent Normal is the simplest drought indicator and can be calculated by dividing the actual
precipitation of any station with normal precipitation (typically based on 30-years mean). If the
rainfall is less than 40% of seasonal normal rainfall at any station for two consecutive seasons
(winter and summer under Pakistani conditions), the drought conditions are set on for that particular
station. PMD has identified drought-prone areas of the country by analyzing the historical
precipitation data (19311988) of important locations. Time-series charts of the seasonal rainfall
amounts thus developed have revealed that the higher the seasonal normal values, the lesser the
chances of drought incidence and vice versa. As a result, Northern Areas, NWFP and parts of the
northern Punjab have seldom experienced droughts, where seasonal normal is higher due to the
presence of western disturbances. Contrary to these, the areas lying in the south and southwestern
28
side of the country (Sindh and Baluchistan and Southern Punjab) have lower seasonal normal and,
consequently, have more drought-prone features.
Aridity Index (AI) was used by the PMD as a criterion to evaluates drought-severity conditions
(light, moderate or severe). The Aridity Index is defined as a ratio of 50% probability of rainfall to
the actual crop evapotranspiration. The computation of Aridity Index requires data on precipitation
and reference crop evapotranspiration. Meteorological data of temperature, humidity, and wind speed
and sunshine hours are needed to compute the reference evapotranspiration.
Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) quantifies the precipitation deficit for multiple time
scales. These time scales reflect the impact of drought on the availability of different water resources.
The SPI calculation for any location is based on the long-term precipitation records for a desired
period. This long-term precipitation record is fitted to a probability distribution, which is transformed
into the normal distribution so that the mean SPI for the location and desired period is zero. Positive
SPI values indicate greater-than median precipitation, while negative values indicate lesser-than
median precipitation. Because the SPI is normalized, wetter and drier climates can be represented
in the same way, and wet periods can also be monitored using SPI.
A drought event occurs any time when SPI is continuously negative and reaches intensity where
the SPI is 1.0 or less. The event ends when SPI becomes positive. Each drought event, therefore,
has a duration defined by its beginning and end, and intensity for each month that event continues.
The accumulated magnitude of drought is a positive sum of SPI for all the months within a drought
event. PMD (2003) has analyzed the last drought episode in the country by using SPI as a criterion
at 48 locations of the country with different time scales.
Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA)
WAPDA is a federal agency responsible for collection of river flows, hydrometeorological data in
the Indus basin and its catchments and for analyses of the impacts of any climatic changes in the
river flows, storage-reservoir levels and groundwater levels in the country. WAPDA maintains the
largest number of hydrometeorological and stream-gauging stations in the country. The processed
information is made available to the concerned federal and provincial agencies through fax and on
the website in case the country is facing a drought. They also provide such information to the Indus
Rivers System Authority (IRSA), to the Federal Committee on Agriculture and, in addition, to the
PMD and the drought-relief and mitigation-related agencies. In the recent drought, such information
was made available to all the concerned parties on a daily basis through fax by the IRSA.
Provincial Irrigation and Drainage Authorities
These authorities are responsible not only for managing the canal deliveries but also for monitoring
the canal diversions and distributing water within the canal network in the Indus basin. They are
also responsible for sharing this information with all the concerned institutions in the country and
work on an emergency basis during the drought periods. They also exercise the practices and
schedules for managing the shortages in the canal supplies. During the drought period of 1998
2002, provincial Irrigation and Power Departments (IPDs) implemented comprehensive interventions
including a) conservation of water releases from storage reservoirs during slack demand period
and their reallocation during critical stages, b) canal water allocations on a priority basis to canal
commands having brackish groundwater, and c) operating canals on revised rotations.
29
The District Governments
District Governments now include Departments of Agriculture, Livestock, Public Health, Revenue,
etc. The field staff report to their respective district headquarters and the provincial departments
any unusual changes due to a prolonged dry spell, i.e., reduced water availability for agriculture,
livestock and for rural population. They also report such happenings to the District Governments,
as these departments have been devolved and now their district staff are directly under the control
of the district administration. The District Coordination Officer and the Nazim (District Public
Representative) coordinate the information provided by various line departments and keep the
provincial administration informed accordingly. The devolution system certainly has an edge to
coordinate the monitoring information at the local level.
The major limitation in the monitoring of the drought is the integration of the hydrological,
meteorological and socioeconomic information, as no single institution is responsible for the
monitoring of drought in the country.
National Calamity Act
The Federal Government is responsible for developing a framework and undertake necessary
mitigation measures and relief support for the social and economic revival of calamity-stricken
areas (due to floods, droughts, earthquakes) and communities. The West Pakistan National Calamities
(Prevention and Relief) Act, 1958, provides the required legislative basis and framework to counter
the effects of various hazards. According to this Act, whenever a province or any part thereof is
affected or threatened by calamities (droughts, floods, earthquakes, fire epidemic or any other
disaster), the Government, by notification declares the whole or any part of the province as a
calamity-affected area (GOP 1958).
This Act entrusts the provincial Board of Revenue to appoint a Relief Commissioner (which
most of the time, is the senior-most member of the Revenue Board) for calamity-declared areas
including the drought-affected areas. The primary role of the Relief Commissioner as outlined in
the 1958 Act is reproduced as follows:
Collect field reports about losses of life, livestock and property and apprise the provincial and
federal governments of these losses. Suggest compensatory fiscal amount for the calamity-affected
areas, to the provincial and federal governments including postponement of land and other
government taxes, tariffs, revenues, etc. Provide approved compensation to the affected population
through District Relief Officers. The focus of the Act is therefore on relief measures.
Drought-Relief Measures
Whenever, under the National Calamity Act of 1958, any part of the country is declared as a drought-
affected area, the federal, provincial and district governments have to respond to the situation by
initiating a variety of relief and mitigation measures. The emergent relief measures for the severely
affected communities include distribution of food, fodder, water, tents, blankets, medical supplies,
and mobile medical and vaccination teams. Relief expenditures are supported through emergency
budgetary allocations by both the federal and the provincial governments.
Depending on the drought severity, as suggested by the drought-monitoring and assessment,
and resulting vulnerabilities, the Government of Pakistan may designate an area as either drought-
30
affected or severely drought-affected. The relief plans initiated for the rehabilitation of these two
categories vary. The government allocates more funds and undertakes extensive relief measures on
a priority basis in the severely affected areas compared to the less-affected areas. Furthermore, in
severely affected areas, the government may either waive off the land and other revenue taxes,
postpone or even write-off the loan recoveries, may extend the special cash grants from the higher
authorities (President, Prime Minister or Governor) along with the emergency relief supports of
subsidized or free ration and water supplies, public and veterinary health facilities and fodder for
livestock.
Problems observed in relief operations during the latest droughts in Baluchistan and Sindh
included a) lack of a database on assessment and impacts of drought; b) lack of an appropriate
analysis of the records and data collected; c) the attitudinal and behavioral problems; d) lack of
commitment and devotion in relief operations and distribution of materials; e) lack of service
orientation, especially in the health services; f) lack of awareness and culture of the relief camps;
g) clear-cut role of the public and private-sector institutions and interdependencies; h) lack of public
participation and media support; i) moral values of the society; and j) lack of coordination among
the line departments.
Assessment of Required Relief
To estimate the worth of these relief-support programs as well as to prioritize the specific
requirements of drought-affected areas, under the present legislative framework, the Provincial Relief
Commissioners have the responsibility for drought assessment and to apprise the Federal and
Provincial Governments of the required relief support. Most of the time, Relief Commissioners
accomplish this task through the Provincial Board of Revenues and Revenue Departments.
To evaluate the impacts of drought on the livelihood of the rural and urban population and on
the availability of water resources for domestic, water and irrigation purposes, extensive field visits
and surveys are carried out by the Provincial Revenue Departments in drought-affected areas (GOB
2003). Similarly, the impacts of drought on health, sanitation and nutrition conditions in the drought-
affected areas are also assessed through extensive field surveys and visits. In addition to the official
field surveys and visits, NGOs and international donor agencies (UNDP, WFP, FAO, WHO) also
conduct studies and surveys for the assessment of food and nonfood requirements in the drought-
affected areas with an objective to provide information on the assessment of the severity of drought
impacts. The Relief Support Programmes of donor agencies are structured on the basis of the
requirements given by the government. Such surveys were conducted by FAO and UNDP during
19992002, which provided a realistic assessment of the damages of droughts and assessment of
requirements for the Relief Support Programme (UN 2001; WB 2001; UNDP 2003).
The Board of Revenue of the Sindh Government carried out an assessment of the recent
drought during 19992002 in the Sindh province while NGOs (Pattan, Action Churches together)
and donor agencies (FAO, WFP, WHO) carried out independent surveys to evaluate the food,
health and sanitation conditions in the drought-affected areas (PDO 2001; UN 2001; WB 2001,
UNDP 2003).
The Bureau of Statistics, under the overall supervision of Planning and Development
Department, Government of Baluchistan, carried out an assessment of the impacts of drought during
19982002 while the UNDP, FAO, OXFAM, and Islamic Relief carried out independent surveys
31
in drought-affected areas of the province to evaluate food- and nonfood-supply assessments in the
province.
Based upon these survey results, the Relief Commissioners of the concerned provinces rationally
quantify and prioritize the relief-support measures, so that optimal compensation (both in cash and
kind) for the affected communities can be ensured. To coordinate various relief measures for social
and economic revival and rehabilitation of the drought-affected areas in the country as well as to
maintain the liaison with the international donors, the Federal Government has established the
institution including the following:
Federal Drought Emergency Relief and Assistance (DERA) Unit
Emergency Relief Cell (ERC) in the Cabinet Division of the federal government
National Steering Committee
Drought Emergency Relief and Assistance (DERA) Program
For rehabilitation of the drought-affected areas of the country during the latest drought, the
Government of Pakistan commissioned the DERA Program. For the execution of the activities of
the DERA Program, funding was sought from the international donor agencies. The ADB and WB
responded to the request of GOP and a total loan of US$140 million was approved (ADB contributed
US$100 million and the WB contributed US$40 million). In addition to the loan, the government
allocated US$20 million (mainly in the form of services) for the DERA Program. Out of a total
DERA finding of US$160 million, the share of Sindh and Baluchistan provinces was 30% each,
while allocations for Punjab and NWFP were 25% and 15%, respectively.
The focus of the program is on the provision of sustainable drinking-water supplies, water
management and conservation for sustainable livelihood (agriculture and livestock), support for
construction of roads and restoration of drought-affected orchards. The program also provides
essential social services. Based on the source of funding, the DERA Program has been subdivided
into the Drought Impact Mitigation and Recovery Component (DIMRC) and the DERA component.
The sectors identified for investment under WB funding (DERA component) in drought-affected
areas of the country are irrigation, road construction, agriculture and rural water-supply schemes.
However, the major thrust was on the provision of water supply, road construction and irrigation
facilities, where 36, 35 and 23% of the total allocation under the DERA component were invested.
In the Sindh province, the priority sectors were road construction and water-supply schemes for
which 76 and 23% of the provincial allocations were utilized while, the situation was altogether
different in the Baluchistan province, where irrigation was the top priority sector and where 54%
of the provincial share was spent in the water sector.
The funding of the ADB (DIMRC) is mainly focused on water, agriculture, health, road
construction and community welfare schemes in the drought-affected areas of different provinces.
However, different provinces have different priority sectors. For example, the emphasis of the
Government of Sindh is more on road construction in drought-affected areas, where 75% of the
provincial DIMRC allocations were invested. In the Baluchistan province, the main thrust was on
schemes related to water development. Installation of tube wells, rural water-supply schemes,
32
construction of delay-action dams and improvement and renovation of karezes were accomplished
in drought-affected areas of the province.
Federal Institutional Arrangements
The Emergency Relief Cell is a part of the Cabinet Division, Government of Pakistan. The history
of this Cell dates back to 1970, when a catastrophic cyclone caused widespread devastation in the
former East Pakistan. This Cell prepared a National Disaster Plan in 1974. The purpose of the
Disaster Plan was to establish procedures, prescribe an organizational setup, fix primary
responsibilities and support functions of the implementing agencies involved and standardize
procedures for monitoring of the disaster operations. The plan embraces all disaster situations and
envisages utilization of available resources (governmental, semigovernmental and nongovernmental).
Being action-oriented, functional and flexible, the plan is capable of meeting disaster situations of
various intensity as well as multiple contingencies. Despite being small, the Emergency Relief Cell
is playing a substantial role in mitigation of disaster including drought:
Provide assistance in cash and in relief materials to supplement the resources of provincial
governments during droughts.
Maintain liaison with international aid-giving agencies, volunteer organizations and donor
countries for drought-relief measures.
Administer the Prime Ministers Food Relief Fund at the federal level.
Provide mobility including helicopters for rescue of the affected people and for relief
operations.
To accomplish these responsibilities/operations in drought-affected areas the following
infrastructure is available with ERC.
The Emergency Control Room of the Emergency Relief Cell goes into operation during the
flood or drought season or other natural disasters. It maintains constant liaison with the Engineers
Directorate of Pakistan Army, Federal Flood Commission, Pakistan Meteorological Department,
Provincial Governments Relief Commissioners and Relief Officers. Daily situation reports are
received from the drought-stricken areas through the Provincial Governments and the concerned
Federal Agencies, and a comprehensive report is compiled depicting the latest position of the drought-
affected area. Such reports help in decision making and in channelizing the relief operations.
Warehouse of the Emergency Relief Cell is located at Islamabad for stockpiling of essential
relief items to be used during emergency situations. The Warehouse has basic nonperishable
medicines and nonperishable goods (blankets, clothing and tents, etc.) that can be rushed to the
affected areas at short notice.
A Deputy Director, located at Karachi, heads the relief Goods Dispatch Organization of the
Emergency Relief Cell. This organization is responsible for making arrangements for receipt and
dispatch of all relief goods from foreign and local agencies in the event of a disaster. The organization
is also responsible for clearance and making flight arrangements at airports, seaports, refueling of
planes, reception of crews, custom clearance and all other related formalities.
33
The Aviation Squadron of the Emergency Relief Cell maintains a fleet of six helicopters out
of which three are nonoperational due to the nonavailability of spare parts. These helicopters
are detailed for rescue operations during disaster and visits of relief officials to the drought-
affected areas.
For the effective coordination and monitoring of the DERA program at the federal level, the
Government of Pakistan has appointed Secretary, Planning and Development Division as the Federal
Drought Coordinator. To assist the Federal Drought Coordinator, the National Steering Committee
was established during November 2001. The steering committee is chaired by the Deputy Secretary,
Planning and Development Division and has representation from various federal, provincial and
international donor agencies. The Steering Committee has constituted the DERA Unit as its
Secretariat, which is headed by the National Project Director. The primary function of the Steering
Committee is to analyze and approve the relief schemes as submitted by the provincial DERA Units.
Provincial Institutional Arrangements
To coordinate, monitor and implement the drought-response strategy at the provincial level, the
Relief Commissions were established under the instruction of the Federal Government. In addition
to these, the provinces also have their own mechanisms to strengthen the relief-support activities
within provincial jurisdictions. Similarly, to execute and monitor the DERA activities, provincial
Steering Committees and Secretariats in the form of DERA Units have been constituted in all the
four provincial headquarters. The specific institutional arrangements of the Baluchistan province
(established during the latest drought) include the following:
Relief Commission, Quetta
Drought Crisis Control Centre (DCCC)
Provincial Drought Management Committee (PDMC)
Provincial DERA Unit, Quetta
The specific institutional arrangements of the Sindh province (established during the latest
drought) include the following:
Relief Commission, Karachi
Provincial Steering Committee
Provincial DERA Unit Karachi
The structure and role of the district-level institutional arrangements in the form of District
Drought Control Committees have also been included in the DERA manifesto, but these are
practically either nonexistent or inactive.
34
Political Aspects of Drought Declaration and Mitigation
Drought is not a sudden event but rather a process, which accumulates slowly over time in any
region or area. As a result, it provides ample time for the state managers to undertake preemptive
measures to minimize the vulnerabilities of the regions that are at risk. However, since governments
have to initiate extensive programs at huge investment costs, they tend to ignore the issue at its
emerging stage. Similar politics/tactics are being practiced in Pakistan, where economic stability
is always questionable. The Government of Sindh, with an objective to avoid the rigorous pressure
exerted by the extensive relief measures on limited fiscal resources, tries to ignore the dilemma
being developed in the drought-affected areas. However, when the national and international media
and NGOs highlight the sufferings in the drought-affected areas, and also the government perceives
the green signals of donations from the international community, the initiatives are taken by the
authorities.
The other interference of the politicians is to get their own districts declared as drought-affected
to seek relief support. Therefore, politics also plays a critical role in the declaration of the drought-
affected areas. The media and local NGOs also play a vital role in documenting the impacts of
droughts and the assessment of the needs of the relief measures.
Political considerations also affect the measures, which are planned to reduce the distress and
havoc of the drought-affected regions through several ways. First, if a drought-affected area belongs
to a public representative who is from a ruling party, it may get relief support on a priority basis,
even if the situation is not that bad. On the other hand, if the drought-affected area is under
control of a public representative of the opposition group, the relief may come late and be insufficient;
and consequently, the disaster becomes inevitable. Similarly, some pressure groups within the
government oppose relevant plans, which may alleviate droughts in the longer run. Strong opposition
to the construction of new surface storage dams on the Indus is just one example.
35
Gaps in Drought Mitigation
Gaps in Knowledge and Information
Impacts of Tube Wells on the Karez System
The traditional water-harvesting and management interventions used by the rural communities
were sustainable compared to the introduction of the new technologies during the last three decades.
For example, the karez was a traditional water-harnessing and irrigation system, which was
sustainable for the development and utilization of scarce resources of groundwater in the fragile
ecosystems of Baluchistan. The karez water-harnessing and irrigation system was designed using
the local knowledge and skills to address the needs of the rural communities irrespective of their
investment capacities. Therefore, the resource-rich and resource-poor farmers were equally involved
in the development of karez and the system was aimed to have social equity, where water was
available to all the households based on their contribution in the development of the karez system.
With the development of deep tube-well technology and the provision of the National Electric Grid
system in Baluchistan, the indiscriminate exploitation of groundwater through deep tube wells
resulted in drying of karezes, and the resource-rich farmers started drilling deeper to ensure pumping
of sufficient quantities of water under the conditions of continuous lowering of the water table.
The descriptive information on traditional and new technological interventions is available, but
there is a complete gap of quantitative knowledge on how the new technologies affected the traditional
and sustainable interventions like karezes. There is hardly any information available regarding the
impact of new technologies in lowering of the water table and mining of groundwater in Baluchistan.
Similar impacts were observed in the arid zones of the Sindh province, where indiscriminate use
of groundwater by deep tube wells has led to the drying up of the shallow dug-wells and intrusion
of saline water. There is a unique opportunity in Baluchistan to document the impacts of deep tube-
well technology on the drying of karezes, which resulted in shifting the benefits of electric tariff
subsidy to the resource-rich farmers. Baluchistan provides a unique opportunity to the Region in
the assessment of the impacts of new technologies on the karez system. A comprehensive research
study is needed to address this issue in a scientific manner.
Spate Irrigation and Groundwater Recharge
In Baluchistan, the sailaba (spate irrigation) system was historically given higher priority prior to
the introduction of deep tube-well technology and the availability of electricity. The government is
now providing a subsidy of Rs7 billion per annum on electric tariff for 14,363 deep tube wells,
which provided opportunity to farmers to overexploit the groundwater for growing high-value crops.
This resulted in the neglect of the sailaba system, which was very effective in spreading of floodwater
and recharging the groundwater. Instead of the development of the sailaba system, delay-action
dams were constructed by deploying huge financial resources to recharge the groundwater aquifer.
There is a general consensus that the delay-action dams provide recharge to the shallow groundwater
under very localized conditions. The contribution of delay-action dams for recharging the deep
groundwater and at regional or basin level is still to be documented.
36
In general, little is known about the efficiencies of artificial recharge methods, which are a
major issue in the Baluchistan province and the arid zones of the Sindh. Little is also known about
the performance of water-harvesting and conservation methods under drought conditions of different
extremity and about their impacts on the water-resources availability and sustainability.
There have been studies to address the issue of sedimentation in the delay-action dams due to
the heavy inflow of sediments in the floodwater. The concept of Leaky Delay-Action Dams was
developed by the PCRWR, which reduces the speed of floodwater but allows slow release of
floodwater downstream of the dam through outlets. This intervention is promising and might provide
an effective intervention for the recharge of groundwater. However, there is a need to conduct a
comprehensive study to document the techno-economics of delay-action dams in recharging the
shallow groundwater in the localized and the regional contexts. Pakistan can share the experiences
in recharging the groundwater in arid fragile environments with other countries in the region.
Research and Adaptations
There is hardly any institution having a mandate for R&D in the area of drought mitigation. The
Arid Zone Research Center (AZRC), Quetta (an institution PARC) is involved in research related
to the drought-prone areas, but their activities are limited to the agronomic, economic and
management research for the khushkhaba areas and rangelands. The technologies developed by
AZRC perform only if there is sufficient incidental rainfall; otherwise, crop harvests are not possible
under drought conditions. The other limitation is that AZRC does not work at the scale of
hydrological units, like river basins, and their research focuses primarily at the farm level.
In Pakistans Indus basin, a number of water-management interventions has been developed
over the last two decades. This includes water management at the farm level, especially the improved
water conveyance and application technologies. But these technologies were not tested in the drought-
prone areas. Thus there is an opportunity to test and evaluate these interventions in drought-prone
areas of Baluchistan and Sindh provinces of Pakistan. In addition, Pakistan can also benefit from
Irans experiences in the area of drip irrigation, as it is much ahead of Pakistan. Reciprocally, Iran
can benefit from Pakistans experiences of watercourse improvement, laser leveling and furrow-
bed irrigation systems.
Drought Preparedness and Mitigation
The knowledge and information for designing drought preparedness and mitigation measures are
limited. The gap in knowledge is basically due to the disjointed efforts conducted by various
institutions. Pakistan can learn from the countries of the region (e.g., India) that have been developing
programs for drought mitigation.
Institutions
The institutional arrangements are reasonably well defined for the drought-relief activities, but there
is hardly any institutional mechanism for drought preparedness and mitigation to address the long-
term issues.
There is a lack of appropriate institutional arrangements and mechanisms to develop effective
linkages between the public-sector institutions, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector
37
and the civil society. Although these institutions worked in a more collaborative fashion during the
latest drought period, such collaboration was limited to the so-called relief measures and never
became part of their routine activities.
Presently, there is no comprehensive drought-mitigation infrastructure and strategy at the federal
and provincial levels. Contrary to the well-established flood mitigation with adequate institutional
arrangements, the drought-mitigation activities, by and large, are managed on an ad hoc basis.
Institutional arrangements and their capacities are inadequate at the federal and provincial levels
to effectively launch the early warning systems, preparedness and contingency plans, and
rehabilitation measures, while such arrangements are nonexistent at the district level.
The major limitation in the monitoring of the drought is the integration of the hydrological,
meteorological and socioeconomic information, as no single institution is responsible for the
monitoring of drought in Pakistan.
Pakistan can learn from the regional experiences from Iran and India by sharing knowledge
and information in the area of drought preparedness in relation to the institutional aspects. A regional
study on institutional aspects is very much needed to share existing experiences and to learn how
an effective institutional framework can be developed through a regional effort.
Policies
There is hardly any policy of the Governments of Baluchistan and Sindh for drought preparedness,
mitigation and coping mechanisms. Only ad hoc measures were adopted after the recent drought,
which persisted during the last 6 years (19982004).
Recently, the ADB initiated a Programme Loan for Baluchistan entitled Baluchistan Resource
Management Programme, which has four components: a) fiscal and financial management, b)
public-service delivery, c) water-resources management policy, and d) private-sector development
strategy. The formulation of the Water Resources Management Policy was well received by the
Government of Baluchistan and other stakeholders because of the severe impacts of the prolonged
drought (19982004) on the mining of groundwater and lowering of the water table.
The formulation of the Water Resources Management Policy would depend on the availability
of reliable information regarding the availability and use of water resources, which is very limited
at present. In Pakistan, information on the Indus basin is reasonable, but areas outside the Indus
basin, including Baluchistan, have been neglected. Thus there is a gap in reliable information on
surface water and groundwater. The impacts of drought were so severe that there is urgency for
the reassessment of the resource availability.
Although there is an understanding for the need to formulate a policy there is hardly any
commitment at the political level to enforce such a policy. Therefore, there is a need to initiate
R&D activities to support the development of an implementable policy and a reforms agenda.
Everyone is convinced that lack of implementation is a major issue but hardly any systematic
effort exists for the identification of mechanisms for the implementation of any policy or reforms.
Therefore, there is a need to study alternative options for implementation of drought-mitigation
and water-resources-management policy and reforms. Another issue is the impact of socioeconomics
and political regimes on the drought preparedness and mitigation policies in the region, as the political
system always affects technological and institutional efforts.
38
Options for Future Strategy
Technological
The APN study on the Impacts of Climate Change on Availability of Water Resources in South
Asia, including Pakistan indicated that extreme events like droughts and floods are going to become
severer in the future. Considering the probability of having more frequent droughts in the future,
there is a need to integrate the aspects of drought and water management by developing a strategy
for research on Drought and Water Management in an integrated fashion. In fact, there should
be one word giving the meaning of both drought and water management in arid environments,
particularly those outside the Indus river basin.
Overall, in Pakistan, drought management should be part of the larger national water-
development strategies and plans. WAPDAs comprehensive program of Water Resources and
Hydropower Development has been designed to avert the impacts of droughts and desertification
in the country on a longer-term basis by augmenting the existing canal-water supplies. The projects
included in the Vision along with the site locations are presented in figure 3. The projects of Vision
2025 have been included in the Perspective Development Plan for the period 20012011. Work on
several projects (Mangla Dam Raising, Rainee, Katchi and Greater Thal Canals) has already started.
All the three mentioned canals will provide water to drought-prone areas (WAPDA 1987, 2001).
Figure 3. Location map of the water development projects envisaged under Vision 2025.
39
The future strategy for technological development should depend on the realistic assessment
of the surface-water resources in the fragile drought-prone environments, as the groundwater
resources in these environments are limited. A good example is the Baluchistan province where the
groundwater resources constitute 4% of the annual available water resources. The other 96% is
available from the surface-water resources. Therefore, emphasis should be placed on surface water,
out of which, around 30% is available from the Indus basin and 66% from the floodwater. Out of
the floodwater, around 30% is utilized and the balance 70% is lost unutilized. Thus the potential
source of development is the floodwater, which could be, and is, presently being used for the sailaba
area, dependent on spate irrigation. The situation is similar in arid zones of the Sindh province.
The other aspect worth considering is the risk involved in the availability of floodwater due to low
rainfall. There is a need to conduct research for the development of a strategy for technological
development with active participation of water users and link spate irrigation with interventions
related to recharge of the groundwater. The unutilized floodwater available for potential development
in Baluchistan is around 12 billion m
3
, which is equivalent to the designed live storage capacity of
the Tarbela dam.
Presently, the Irrigation and Power Department is actively involved in the construction of delay-
action dams for recharging the groundwater. The effectiveness of these dams is questionable from
two standpoints: First, whether the delay-action dam contributes significantly to recharging the
shallow groundwater or deep groundwater. Second, what is its contribution at the local and regional
levels? The Government of Baluchistan is stuck with making a decision on the effective ways of
recharging the groundwater.
In summary, the strategy for technological development in Baluchistan and arid areas of Sindh
should be based on the assessment of the potential resources available for development through
integrating activities of spate irrigation with the objective of spreading of floodwater to increase
the command area and recharging the regional groundwater resources.
Institutional
The institutional aspects of spate irrigation and regional groundwater recharge are very complex
and include water user institutions, line departments, district governments, research institutions,
policy institutions and public representative institutions.
The major problem is that the Irrigation and Power Department is engaged in, and will continue
to handle, spate irrigation and groundwater recharge activities in traditional surface irrigation
approaches. In fact, there is a need to document the traditional systems of spate irrigation and then
evolve improvements with active participation of the water users institutions prevailing in the
area. The major issue is how to make the traditional water user institutions sustainable in terms of
both capacity and financial autonomy.
The institutional development strategy should revolve around the existing institutions and the
policies related to the participation of users in the planning, appraisal, design and implementation
of the schemes. There is also a need to review the existing structure and mandate of the public-
sector institutions, especially after the devolution at the district level; the role of the provincial
institutions was never reviewed. This is also a handicap in the development of the district
governments and the implementation of the devolution agenda.
40
The introduction of the devolution was an effort in the right direction, but due to the lack of
reorientation of the provincial institutions and identification of the revised role, the whole experiment
of devolution is at stake.
Most of the line departments have been devolved under the district government, except the
Irrigation and Power Department. The basin-wide approach is always preferred to the sustainable
management of water resources. But all the other line departments are organized under the boundaries
of the district administration. Therefore, the conflict between the administrative and hydrological
boundaries has to be resolved to achieve the overall objective of sustainable resources management
under drought conditions.
In summary, institutional development is needed to have active participation of water user
institutions in the management of water resources. This would be achieved through assigning specific
roles to the water user institutions and reorientation of the provincial line departments. There is
also a need to bridge the gap between administrative and hydrological boundaries.
Policy
In the policy arena, there is a need to have IWRM and Drought Mitigation Policy for Baluchistan
and Sindh provinces of Pakistan. The ADB, under the Baluchistan Resource Management
Programme, has started formulating the Policy Paper on IWRM in which drought-mitigation
measures will also be considered. But there is complete lack of support information and knowledge
to develop an efficient policy and reform agenda. The following aspects should be considered as
part of the proposed strategy:
Review the existing policies related to drought and water management and identify the policy
research areas.
Identify the potential national collaborators for initiating the policy research covering areas
like reassessment of the resources, basin-wide management plans, implementation of the
drought-mitigation and water-management interventions, institutional arrangements,
participation of water user institutions including gender participation, etc.
Presently, the emphasis of the policy is on providing subsidy on electricity tariff,
infrastructural development like the construction of surface irrigation schemes and delay-
action dams, whereas very little emphasis is placed on the management of the resource.
This resulted in mining of groundwater and lowering of the water table.
There is a need to formulate policies which link the development of the resource within the
framework of the IWRM and drought mitigation.
The basin approach is essential for the management of the resource; therefore, policy
research is needed on how to bridge the conflict between the hydrological boundaries and
the administrative boundaries.
A poverty reduction focus is essential along with the management of the resource. Therefore,
research is needed on how the poor are located within the existing ecosystems covering the
canal irrigated area, minor perennial irrigation schemes, tube-well irrigation, sailaba and
41
khushkhaba. An interesting aspect is that electricity subsidy is given to the 50% of tube
well owners who are operating their tube wells on electricity, whereas the balance 50%
tube wells are being operated on diesel fuel. Thus diesel operated tube well owners are
deprived of any subsidy. Another aspect is that the poorest of the poor live in the sailaba
and khushkhaba areas, which are completely neglected. Drought-related policies should help
in poverty alleviation in these areas.
One critical issue is the high O&M of the water schemes for both water supply and
irrigation. The concept of hading over of the schemes to the community fails because they
cannot manage these schemes due to the high O&M costs. In fact, the community was
never asked what type of schemes they wanted and what level of O&M they could manage.
There is a need to review the existing policy of infrastructure development in drought-prone
areas.
42
Conclusions and Recommendations
The existing system of monitoring drought and its impacts on various sectors is weak. The
dissemination and sharing of the available information to the civil society and between and across
government departments and with organizations outside government system are limited. There is a
need to develop a policy for the access to information related to drought and water management.
Such information databases themselves are limited at present. A similar situation exists at the
regional level. Sharing and exchange of information regarding drought monitoring and impact
assessment are also limited among the countries of the region. India is ahead in this regard and
Pakistan can learn from their experiences. Similarly, exchange of information and building joint
programs between Pakistan and Iran would help the two countries as the climate and environment
are similar in both countries (at least in Baluchistan and adjacent areas of Iran).
Both target areas (provinces) considered in this document have limited water resources in areas
outsides the Indus basin. Still they do not make efficient use of the available resources. Farmers
are not aware of actual crop water requirements and irrigation-scheduling practices are still largely
based on the amount of water available with the farmer and the situation of the farm. Farmers
tend to overirrigate to cover the unleveled fields. Efforts are needed to help farmers in efficient
conveyance and application of pumped groundwater. The water-management technologies developed
in the Indus basin regarding conveyance and application of water at the farm are very promising
as Pakistan was ahead of the countries in the region. Even then such technologies were hardly tested
and adapted in the drought-prone areas. Pakistan can provide a unique opportunity to share the
experiences of the watercourse-improvement program, laser leveling, furrow-bed irrigation, skimming
wells and salinity management. Similarly, Pakistan can learn from India and Iran in the area of
drip and sprinkler irrigation systems as both these countries are ahead in this regard. A regional
research and development program for drought and water management seems justified for
exchanging experiences and knowledge and building future activities.
Farmers should be encouraged and motivated to use indigenous water-harvesting technologies
for sailaba and khushkhaba areas. There is a need to understand the traditional systems of sailaba
and khushkhaba and suggest improvements within the existing framework instead of introducing
conventional surface-irrigation schemes. The use of local knowledge and wisdom is essential along
with active participation of local water user institutions. Pakistan is ahead of the region in developing
the sailaba irrigation as such systems have been in place since 3000 BC. These systems of water
spreading if integrated with recharging the groundwater can provide cost-effective intervention
for mitigating the drought impacts. The spate-irrigation development provides a workable option
for the normal years and such systems do not provide water during droughts. Thus the population
has to migrate from these areas during the drought. Therefore, provision of water-storage dams
can provide a source of small-scale irrigation for the drought periods so that rural communities
can stay in these areas. Furthermore, such dams can also provide a source for supplemental
irrigation. Provision of water for high-value agriculture in sailaba systems would be the ultimate
goal of mitigating the impacts of drought. The experiences of Iran under the Program of Jihad-a-
Sadindgi are highly valuable for other countries of the region to learn how the rural communities
and the experts were motivated to construct small storage dams.
Due to the excessive exploitation of groundwater, coupled with successive droughts, the water
tables in different parts of Sindh, especially in Baluchistan, have declined considerably . In
Baluchistan, even karezes (traditional groundwater irrigation systems have dried up. This
43
overexploitation of the resource has caused devastating impacts on drinking water supplies for urban
and rural populations. For conservation of the resource, the government needs to develop appropriate
policies to effectively manage and monitor groundwater development and use. Steps should be taken
for the revision and enforcement of water laws. Communities should be directly involved in the
campaign of recharging the aquifers and in the conjunctive use and management of surface water
and groundwater resources. Pakistans Indus basin experiences of conjunctive use of water have to
be used and adapted in the drought-prone areas of Baluchistan and Sindh provinces. Such
experiences if translated for the nonirrigated areas can provide excellent examples for the countries
of the region.
The use of efficient irrigation methods, farm layout, balanced use of fertilizer and pesticides,
and integrated nutrient management remain limited and is one of the key factors underlying low
productivity in Sindh and Baluchistan. There is a need to arrange demonstrations by the WUAs to
disseminate a full range of improved water-management and water-use-crop-production practices
to the WUA members. Training of WUA members would be an essential element of the whole
program. A program of breeding and selection of crop varieties, which can extract water from a
deeper level should be established. Such varieties coupled with water management can revolutionize
sailaba areas. The character of the sailaba system is that 12 irrigations of 11.5 m depths are
applied to mature the wheat crop. The soils are rich in nutrients and farmers are not using any
chemical fertilizers, as every flood brings fresh silt of 57 cm in depth. These ecologies are therefore
potential locations for organic farming in the region.
Farmers should be encouraged, motivated and trained in the adoption of efficient water-use
technologies such as sprinkler and drip irrigation, laser leveling, raised-bed planting, rainwater
harvesting, watercourse lining and water-storage tanks, which have proven successful in different
arid environments of Pakistan. Involvement of the private sector in the provision of services to
farmers is the only workable option, as the public-sector institutions are not tuned to provide services
in this regard.
A drought-mitigation plan is essential for the drought-prone districts of the Sindh and
Baluchistan provinces. This should also include climatic change impacts on the availability of water
resources and to develop coping mechanisms to address the drought impacts. In fact, such a plan
has to be integrated in the overall perspective development plan so that all the sectoral development
plans should look into drought-mitigation aspects in their routine development activities.
Presently, there is no comprehensive drought-mitigation infrastructure and strategy at the federal
and provincial levels. Contrary to the well-established flood mitigation with adequate institutional
arrangements, the drought-mitigation activities are, by and large, managed on an ad hoc basis.
Institutional arrangements and their capacities are inadequate at the federal and provincial levels
to effectively launch the early warning systems, preparedness and contingency plans, and
rehabilitation measures, while such arrangements are nonexistent at the district level. In fact, this
is the weak area in the region as a whole. This justifies a regional initiative to evaluate the existing
institutional setup and mechanisms for drought mitigation and build an effective structure and
mechanisms, which can be adopted by the countries of the region.
To mitigate the drought impacts, it is essential to formulate and adopt a National Drought
Policy on a priority basis. The suggested guiding principles for the formulation of the National
Drought Policy include the following:
44
Favor preparedness over insurance, insurance over relief and incentives over regulations.
Set research priorities to address the needs of rural communities and urban households
considering the effectiveness and limitations of the existing coping mechanisms.
Coordinate the activities of the drought-mitigation services at the federal, provincial and
district levels.
Participation of public representatives and the civil society is an essential element of any
policy.
A consultation and communication strategy should be formulated while developing the
National Drought Policy. The purpose is to build understanding and ownership of the Policy
by all the stakeholders.
Sharing and exchange of experiences from the countries of the region having similarities.
Preparedness, which includes drought planning, plan implementation, proactive mitigation, risk
management, resource stewardships, consideration of environmental concerns and public education
should be the elements of the new policy. This policy would require a shift from the current emphasis
on ad hoc relief measures to the proactive risk management.
For implementation of the National Drought Policy, there is a need to establish an apex
organization for the planning, coordination and monitoring of the policy interventions at the federal
level. This organization may be entrusted with the responsibility for providing an enabling framework
to the provincial governments, where they are motivated to establish a similar organizational setup
at the provincial levels to provide linkages and coordination among the line departments and the
district governments. A consultant input will be required to prepare the outline for the proposed
organization at the federal and provincial levels. At the district level, a District Drought Mitigation
Committee would be required to implement and monitor the programs as envisaged by the federal
and provincial governments.
There is a need to develop regional R&D Program for Drought Mitigation and Water
Management through active involvement of international organizations and NARS. It should be
aimed at a) sharing and exchange of existing knowledge and information between participating
countries, b) studying the policy and institutional aspects under each participating-country National
Program and encouraging testing and adoption of successful interventions in the participating
countries, and c) evaluating the impacts of socioeconomic and political changes on the policies of
drought and water management in the region.
45
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WORKING PAPER 85
I nt er nat i onal
Water Management
I n s t i t u t e
ISBN: 92-9090-580-8
Drought Series. Paper 3
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I nt er nat i onal
Water Management
I n s t i t u t e
Drought Mitigation
in Pakistan:
Current Status and
Options for Future
Strategies
Shahid Ahmad, Zahid Hussain, Asaf Sarwar Qureshi,
Rashida Majeed and Mohammad Saleem